The map above shows the top 10 oil producing countries in 1939. Three big things stand out to me:
- First, of all Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan are not among the top 10.
- Two, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are also not among the top 10.
- Just how much more dominant the US was than everyone else. You can see the table below but US production was more than double the next 9 combined.
Here is the data by country:
| Country | Barrels of Oil | Share of World Oil Production |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1,169,471,698 | 60.0% |
| Venezuela | 208,881,646 | 10.7% |
| USSR | 207,287,646 | 10.6% |
| Iran | 66,578,329 | 3.4% |
| Indonesia | 54,380,511 | 2.8% |
| Romania | 42,688,941 | 2.2% |
| Mexico | 41,991,141 | 2.2% |
| Iraq | 27,111,582 | 1.4% |
| Colombia | 22,575,882 | 1.2% |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 19,599,970 | 1.0% |
| Argentina | 18,218,053 | 0.9% |
| Peru | 12,273,071 | 0.6% |
| Myanmar | 7,203,759 | 0.4% |
| Bahrain | 7,101,141 | 0.4% |
| Canada | 6,957,476 | 0.4% |
| Brunei | 5,342,959 | 0.3% |
| Germany | 5,062,471 | 0.3% |
| Egypt | 4,556,223 | 0.2% |
| Saudi Arabia | 3,687,394 | 0.2% |
| Poland | 3,591,618 | 0.2% |
| China | 2,627,012 | 0.1% |
| Japan | 2,202,859 | 0.1% |
| India | 2,127,606 | 0.1% |
| Ecuador | 2,086,559 | 0.1% |
| Malaysia | 1,149,318 | 0.1% |
| Austria | 985,129 | 0.1% |
| Hungary | 985,129 | 0.1% |
| Albania | 964,606 | 0.0% |
| France | 478,882 | 0.0% |
| Bolivia | 191,553 | 0.0% |
| Czechoslovakia | 143,665 | 0.0% |
| Italy | 82,094 | 0.0% |
| Morocco | 34,206 | 0.0% |
| Taiwan | 34,206 | 0.0% |
| United Kingdom | 27,365 | 0.0% |
| Barbados | 6,841 | 0.0% |
| Yugoslavia | 6,841 | 0.0% |
| Algeria | - | 0.0% |
| Angola | - | 0.0% |
| Australia | - | 0.0% |
| Bangladesh | - | 0.0% |
| Brazil | - | 0.0% |
| Bulgaria | - | 0.0% |
| Cameroon | - | 0.0% |
| Chile | - | 0.0% |
| Congo | - | 0.0% |
| Cote d'Ivoire | - | 0.0% |
| Cuba | - | 0.0% |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | - | 0.0% |
| Denmark | - | 0.0% |
| Gabon | - | 0.0% |
| Ghana | - | 0.0% |
| Greece | - | 0.0% |
| Guatemala | - | 0.0% |
| Israel | - | 0.0% |
| Kuwait | - | 0.0% |
| Libya | - | 0.0% |
| Mongolia | - | 0.0% |
| Netherlands | - | 0.0% |
| New Zealand | - | 0.0% |
| Nigeria | - | 0.0% |
| Norway | - | 0.0% |
| Oman | - | 0.0% |
| Pakistan | - | 0.0% |
| Philippines | - | 0.0% |
| Qatar | - | 0.0% |
| Spain | - | 0.0% |
| Suriname | - | 0.0% |
| Sweden | - | 0.0% |
| Syria | - | 0.0% |
| Thailand | - | 0.0% |
| Tunisia | - | 0.0% |
| Turkey | - | 0.0% |
| United Arab Emirates | - | 0.0% |
The data comes from Our World In Data and has been converted from TWh to Barrels.
![Watch World War I Every Day On The Western Front [Video]](https://brilliantmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-300x200.jpg)
Clive Conway says
With regard to the 1939 oil producers map, Nazi Germany wasn’t ever a country. Would a map have Republican USA on it, or Conservative UK?