Adjusting the taps on oil price

By The Data Team

HOW will the falling oil price affect profitability and production? Who pumps how much at what price? Depending on geography, some reserves are more expensive to exploit than others and only a high oil price can justify the costs. This interactive graphic allows you to choose an oil price and see its effect on OPEC and non-OPEC production and viability, broken down by country. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours, blessed by geology, manage to make a profit even when oil is at $20 due to its readily accessible reserves.

America's shale belt used to only be profitable with oil at around $100. But now efficiency gains have sent that down sharply. It takes a soaring oil price for Russia's giant but costly reserves to kick in. Oil firms involved in other hard-to-reach and inefficient reserves, such as oil sands in Canada, ultra-deep offshore deposits, and the Arctic, are also hoping for a return to three-digit oil. Using the graphic above, take your turn at the tap, tighten the squeeze, and feel the oil magnates' pain.

Read our leader: ”Who's afraid of cheap oil” and briefing: ”The oil conundrum”.