<p>There are estimates produced my the major coal, gas and oil producing nations, but there are large error bars for some of them.</p>

<p>Wikipedia has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves" rel="nofollow">oil</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_by_country" rel="nofollow">gas</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_by_country" rel="nofollow">coal</a> split down by country - well worth a read of this or the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/" rel="nofollow">CIA World Factbook</a>, especially on the description of the various categories of oil reserves (Proven and Unproven and the various estimation methods used to work out how much is actually likely to be retrievable) but in summary:</p>

<ul>
<li>World Coal Reserves - 909,064,000,000 tonnes</li>
<li>World gas reserves -  175,400,000,000,000 cubic metres</li>
<li>World oil reserves -  1,324,000,000,000 barrels</li>
</ul>

<p>Now these numbers may not mean very much unless aligned with production and usage rates.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-02T00:11:36.643Z
2016-02-02T06:39:48.463Z
2016-02-02T06:39:48.463Z
Rory Alsop
<p>Oil, gas and coal are produced from organic matter. But is there an estimation how much is there still under the Earth's surface?</p>

<geology><economic-geology><resources>
Is there an estimation how much organic matter there is still in the ground?
Marijn 
# Is there an estimation how much organic matter there is still in the ground?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-01)

Oil, gas and coal are produced from organic matter. But is there an estimation how much is there still under the Earth's surface?

**Tags:** geology, economic-geology, resources


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-02-02. Score: 1

There are estimates produced my the major coal, gas and oil producing nations, but there are large error bars for some of them.

Wikipedia has [oil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves), [gas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_by_country) and [coal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_by_country) split down by country - well worth a read of this or the [CIA World Factbook](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/), especially on the description of the various categories of oil reserves (Proven and Unproven and the various estimation methods used to work out how much is actually likely to be retrievable) but in summary:

* World Coal Reserves - 909,064,000,000 tonnes
* World gas reserves - 175,400,000,000,000 cubic metres
* World oil reserves - 1,324,000,000,000 barrels

Now these numbers may not mean very much unless aligned with production and usage rates.


---

