Persian Gulf Holds 30+ Supergiant Oil Fields
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- Persian Gulf contains more than 30 supergiant oil fields, each holding at least 5 billion barrels of oil.
- Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil field, capable of producing over 70 billion barrels of crude oil.
- South Pars‑North Dome gas field, shared by Qatar and Iran, can produce at least 1,300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—equivalent to over 200 billion barrels of oil.
- Zagros Mountains on the Iranian side of the Gulf feature folded and fractured rock layers that trap hydrocarbons, contributing hundreds of billions of barrels of oil and cubic meters of gas.
- US Geological Survey estimates that, despite a century of drilling, the Persian Gulf may still hold up to 86 billion barrels of oil and 336 trillion cubic feet of natural gas undiscovered.
- Saudi Arabia and the UAE are testing horizontal drilling and fracking techniques to increase production from existing fields.
Why it matters: Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and the UAE control roughly half of global conventional oil and 40% of gas, giving them outsized influence over world energy supplies and pricing, while any disruption in the Gulf can reverberate across global markets.
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