World's Five Largest Offshore Oil Fields

Forty years later, a survey of the world’s five largest offshore fields by estimated recoverable reserves is a stark reminder of why they still should.

The three largest offshore oil fields are located in the Persian Gulf, off the coasts of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Located about 165 miles north of Dharan, Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, the Safaniya oil field contains an estimated total reserve of more than 50 billion barrels (36 billion of which are said to be recoverable). It is the world’s largest offshore field.

Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil and natural gas company, owns and operates the elephant-sized oil field, which was discovered in 1951 and has been producing oil since 1957. The field produces up to 1.5 million barrels of heavy crude oil per day.

On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping secured a major stake in the Kashagan oil field in a $5 billion deal with Kazakhstan, beating out India’s effort to invest in the oil field.

“The two countries have agreed on China’s shareholding in the development of the Kashagan deposit,” Xi told a news briefing after talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The agreement will allow China to buy about 8% of the oil produced at the offshore oilfield for about $5 billion.

The Upper Zakum Oil Field, the world’s second largest offshore oil field, is located about 50 miles northwest of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Persian Gulf. The field contains an estimated 50 billion barrels of total oil reserves with an estimated recoverable oil reserve of 21 billion barrels. The Upper Zakum field was discovered in 1963 and brought on stream in 1967. The current production capacity of the field is 500,000 barrels of crude a day.

The Manifa oil field sits slightly southeast of the Safaniya field in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The field was discovered in 1957 and started production in 1964 with a daily capacity of 200,000 barrels.

Owner: Kaz Munay Gas (16.81%), Eni (16.81%), ExxonMobil (16.81%), Shell (16.81%), Total TOT -0.31% (16.81%), ConocoPhillips (8.40%) and INPEX (7.56%)

The Kashagan oil field is located the North Caspian Sea about 50 miles southeast of the city of Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Containing more than 35 billion barrels of oil in total and an estimated recoverable oil reserve of nine billion barrels, it is the world’s largest offshore field outside the Middle East. It was discovered in 2000 and is expected to begin production later this year with an initial output of 180,000 barrels per day.

The Lula field, which was previously known as the Tupi field, was discovered by Petrobras in 2007. Production from the first phase of pilot production project in the Lula field began in 2010. Production from the north-east area of Lula field started in 2011.