Saudi Aramco is setting the world's oil industry the challenge to find a trillion barrels more oil reserves over the next 25 years, its CEO Abdallah Jum'ah told a conference.

"I would like to challenge our explorationists to find enough new resources for us to add one trillion barrels to world reserves over the next 25 years," he said.
In a speech on the technological challenge of extracting every last barrel from the ground, Jum'ah said that, taking into account non-conventional reserves and incremental recovery from existing fields, the amount of remaining oil was even more spectacular.
"We are looking at more than 4.5 trillion barrels of potentially recoverable oil," he said.
"That number translates into more than 140 years of supply at today's rate of consumption."
He said extracting "every last economic barrel" was challenging but not impossible. "Our challenge consists of leaving the least amount of oil in the ground, finding every last economic barrel yet to be discovered."
The kingdom’s oil reserves are estimated at around 264 billion barrels.
“This is an ambitious goal, but working together, I am confident our companies can and achieve that target,” Jum’ah said.
“Our future energy needs...will depend on our ability to push the envelope of technology,” he said.
Other technology advances such as seismic imaging have helped oil companies better pinpoint precise locations of hydrocarbons.
Improved drilling techniques, like horizontal drilling, have also made it easier to improve the amount of oil extracted from oilfields.
The oil industry globally has produced about one trillion barrels of oil over the past 100 years out of a current estimated 2.3 trillion barrels of economically recoverable conventional oil reserves, which are typically found in onshore areas.
Non-conventional oil, such as heavy crude found in places like Canada and Venezuela, has the potential for adding upwards of 2 trillion barrels in oil reserves.
Many oil analysts, however, are skeptical that high-cost non-conventional reserves, like heavy oil extracted from tar sands, will be economical for companies long-term.
Jum’ah warned that excessive environmental regulations that block access to potential oilfields would hamper efforts to boost oil supplies in the future. “(Technology advances) mean nothing without access to fields,” he said.
He said said the potential 4.5 trillion barrels in conventional and non-conventional oil reserves equated to 140 years of supply, based on current demand forecasts.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is watching for China to move ahead on negotiations to build the Asian country’s first strategic oil reserves, Jum’ah said.
“We’re waiting for Sinopec,” Jum’ah said. Sinopec has been in discussions with Saudi Aramco to buy crude oil for stockpiling purposes.