Which country extracts the most coal, oil, and gas?
According to the results of 2024, China ranked first in the world by a wide margin in fossil fuel production. The country's total production volume of coal, oil, and natural gas in terms of mass amounted to 4.8 billion tons. The subsequent places were taken by the USA, Russia, India, and Indonesia.
Which country extracts the most coal, oil, and gas?
Fossil fuels still remain one of the main sources of global energy. Coal, oil, and natural gas are of key importance in electricity generation, heavy industry, transport, and the production of petrochemical products.
Based on the results of 2024, Visual Capitalist compiled a ranking of the world's 25 largest fuel-producing countries. It takes into account the physical mass of coal, oil, and natural gas extracted by the countries.
The data for the ranking was provided by the Ministry of Finance of Austria. To enable comparison, the volume of natural gas production was converted from cubic meters to tons.
An important aspect here is that the ranking reflects the mass of the extracted fuel, not the amount of energy produced by the countries. This is because the amount of energy in one ton of coal, oil, and natural gas is not the same. Therefore, it would not be correct to interpret this table as a ranking of the countries' total energy production.
In 2024, China took first place in the ranking by a wide margin, producing a total of 4.8 billion tons of fossil fuels.
China's figure is more than twice as high as the result of the United States, which ranks second.
The country's leadership is mainly secured by coal. In 2024, 4.4 billion tons of coal were mined in China. This constitutes the absolute majority of the fossil fuel produced in the country.
Also, China accounts for more than half of the coal mined in the world.
China is not only the world's largest producer of coal, but also its largest consumer. Almost all of the coal mined in the country is consumed in the domestic market — for the needs of electricity generation, industry, and processing sectors.
The United States took second place in the ranking. In 2024, a total of 2.3 billion tons of fossil fuels were produced in the country.
Unlike China, the structure of fuel production in the US is relatively balanced between oil, natural gas, and coal.
In particular, in 2024, oil extraction in the US amounted to 948.8 million tons, natural gas production was 854.6 million tons, and coal mining was 473.8 million tons.