5 Largest Oil Reserves by Country in the World in 2021

4. Iran

Total oil reserves of the country at the end of 2019 (in thousand million barrels): 155.6

Share of total oil reserves in the world at the end of 2019 (in percentage terms): 9

Iran’s woes mainly stem from the fact that it has major oil reserves. While Iran was a developing nation with a modern outlook back in the early 1900s, an Anglo-American coup took place in 1953 to allow Western companies to take advantage of the oil supply in the region. This coup had far reaching consequences which still exist today as it installed a leader who established autocratic rule and instead of the country becoming modernized, it gradually regressed. The National Iranian South Oil Company is the biggest oil company in Iran.