Energy

Inside Tesla’s $5 Billion Gigafactory

Published

9 years ago

July 22, 2014

Jeff Desjardins

Inside Tesla's $5 Billion Gigfactory

Special thanks to Lomiko Metals (TSX-V: LMR) and Global Cobalt (TSX-V: GCO) for helping us put together this infographic.

Inside Tesla’s $5B Gigafactory

With $5 billion in capital expenditures and 6,500 high tech jobs, several states continue to court Tesla Motors to build their next megaproject within their borders. The Tesla Gigfactory, slated to open doors in 2017, will set a new precedent for economies of scale in battery production.

Tesla’s new factory will produce more lithium-ion batteries under one roof than all of 2013’s global production combined. As a result, the electric car company estimates this will cut costs per kWh by 30%.

Tesla’s product strategy relies on it. The Gen III is supposed to retail for only $35,000, which is only half the cost of the more upscale Model S.

UBS notes that raw materials make up 70% of the cost of each lithium-ion battery, so sourcing and procuring these minerals will be a very important component of their overall strategy. In the infographic, we break down the potential impact this will have on these commodities. Special thanks to Simon Moores and The Gold Report, who had a great interview recently on the subject.

Graphite:

In 2013, flake graphite production was 375,000 tonnes. The Gigafactory alone would add another 126,000 tonnes (34% increase) over 2013 production. Even more significant, the increase on battery-grade graphite demand would be 154%.

Cobalt:

55% of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tesla says they do not source from the Congo, so this makes getting cobalt a little more difficult. 42% of cobalt demand is from batteries, making it the blue metal’s #1 use. Current Tesla batteries use about 9% cobalt by weight (NCA formulation).

Lithium:

There has been a steady supply of lithium in Chile since 1996, so this will likely be the easiest commodity to source.

Charted: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers in 2022

Just three countries—the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia—make up the lion’s share of global oil supply. Here are the biggest oil producers in 2022.

Published

2 hours ago

September 21, 2023

Pallavi Rao

A cropped chart with the per day production by the biggest oil producers in 2022.

Charted: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers in 2022

In 2022 oil prices peaked at more than $100 per barrel, hitting an eight-year high, after a full year of turmoil in the energy markets in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Oil companies doubled their profits and the economies of the biggest oil producers in the world got a major boost.

But which countries are responsible for most of the world’s oil supply? Using data from the Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute, we’ve visualized and ranked the world’s biggest oil producers.

Ranked: Oil Production By Country, in 2022

The U.S. has been the world’s biggest oil producer since 2018 and continued its dominance in 2022 by producing close to 18 million barrels per day (B/D). This accounted for nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Almost three-fourths of the country’s oil production is centered around five states: Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, and Colorado.

We rank the other major oil producers in the world below.

Rank	Country	2022 Production (Thousand B/D)	YoY Change	Share of World Supply
1	🇺🇸 U.S.	17,770	+6.5%	18.9%
2	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	12,136	+10.8%	12.9%
3	🇷🇺 Russia	11,202	+1.8%	11.9%
4	🇨🇦 Canada	5,576	+3.0%	5.9%
5	🇮🇶 Iraq	4,520	+10.2%	4.8%
6	🇨🇳 China	4,111	+2.9%	4.4%
7	🇦🇪 UAE	4,020	+10.4%	4.3%
8	🇮🇷 Iran	3,822	+4.6%	4.1%
9	🇧🇷 Brazil	3,107	+3.9%	3.3%
10	🇰🇼 Kuwait	3,028	+12.0%	3.2%
11	🇲🇽 Mexico	1,944	+0.9%	2.1%
12	🇳🇴 Norway	1,901	-6.3%	2.0%
13	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	1,769	-2.0%	1.9%
14	🇶🇦 Qatar	1,768	+1.8%	1.9%
15	🇩🇿 Algeria	1,474	+8.9%	1.6%
16	🇳🇬 Nigeria	1,450	-11.2%	1.5%
17	🇦🇴 Angola	1,190	+1.1%	1.3%
18	🇱🇾 Libya	1,088	-14.3%	1.2%
19	🇴🇲 Oman	1,064	+9.6%	1.1%
20	🇬🇧 UK	778	-11.0%	0.8%
21	🇨🇴 Colombia	754	+2.4%	0.8%
22	🇮🇳 India	737	-3.8%	0.8%
23	🇻🇪 Venezuela	731	+8.1%	0.8%
24	🇦🇷 Argentina	706	+12.4%	0.8%
25	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	685	-5.6%	0.7%
26	🇮🇩 Indonesia	644	-6.9%	0.7%
27	🇪🇬 Egypt	613	+0.8%	0.7%
28	🇲🇾 Malaysia	567	-1.7%	0.6%
29	🇪🇨 Ecuador	481	+1.7%	0.5%
30	🇦🇺 Australia	420	-5.2%	0.4%
31	🇹🇭 Thailand	331	-17.5%	0.4%
32	🇨🇩 Congo	269	-1.7%	0.3%
33	🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	244	+1.0%	0.3%
34	🇻🇳 Vietnam	194	-1.2%	0.2%
35	🇬🇦 Gabon	191	+5.4%	0.2%
36	🇸🇸 South Sudan	141	-7.6%	0.2%
37	🇵🇪 Peru	128	+0.5%	0.1%
38	🇹🇩 Chad	124	+6.2%	0.1%
39	🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	119	-9.2%	0.1%
40	🇸🇾 Syria	93	-2.7%	0.1%
41	🇮🇹 Italy	92	-7.9%	0.1%
42	🇧🇳 Brunei	92	-13.8%	0.1%
43	🇾🇪 Yemen	81	-2.4%	0.1%
44	🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago	74	-3.6%	0.1%
45	🇷🇴 Romania	65	-6.2%	0.1%
46	🇩🇰 Denmark	65	-1.6%	0.1%
47	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	63	-0.9%	0.1%
48	🇸🇩 Sudan	62	-3.3%	0.1%
49	🇹🇳 Tunisia	40	-12.9%	0.0%
50	Other CIS	43	+4.4%	0.0%
51	Other Middle East	210	+1.2%	0.2%
52	Other Africa	283	-3.4%	0.3%
53	Other Europe	230	-20.5%	0.2%
54	Other Asia Pacific	177	-10.6%	0.2%
55	Other S. & Cent. America	381	+68.5%	0.4%
	Total World	93,848	+4.2%	100.0%

Behind America’s considerable lead in oil production, Saudi Arabia (ranked 2nd) produced 12 million B/D, accounting for about 13% of global supply.

Russia came in third with 11 million B/D in 2022. Together, these top three oil producing behemoths, along with Canada (4th) and Iraq (5th), make up more than half of the entire world’s oil supply.

Meanwhile, the top 10 oil producers, including those ranked 6th to 10th—China, UAE, Iran, Brazil, and Kuwait—are responsible for more than 70% of the world’s oil production.

Notably, all top 10 oil giants increased their production between 2021–2022, and as a result, global output rose 4.2% year-on-year.

Major Oil Producing Regions in 2022

The Middle East accounts for one-third of global oil production and North America makes up almost another one-third of production. The Commonwealth of Independent States—an organization of post-Soviet Union countries—is another major regional producer of oil, with a 15% share of world production.

Region	2022 Production (Thousand B/D)	YoY Change	Share of World Supply
Middle East	30,743	+9.2%	32.8%
North America	25,290	+5.3%	27.0%
CIS	14,006	+0.9%	14.9%
Africa	7,043	-3.5%	7.5%
Asia Pacific	7,273	-1.4%	7.8%
South & Central America	6,361	7.2%	6.8%
Europe	3,131	-8.6%	3.3%

What’s starkly apparent in the data however is Europe’s declining share of oil production, now at 3% of the world’s supply. In the last 20 years the EU’s oil output has dropped by more than 50% due to a variety of factors, including stricter environmental regulations and a shift to natural gas.

Another lens to look at regional production is through OPEC members, which control about 35% of the world’s oil output and about 70% of the world’s oil reserves.

A pictogram of the regional per day production by the biggest oil producers in 2022.

When taking into account the group of 10 oil exporting countries OPEC has relationships with, known as OPEC+, the share of oil production increases to more than half of the world’s supply.

Oil’s Big Balancing Act

Since it’s the very lifeblood of the modern economy, the countries that control significant amounts of oil production also reap immense political and economic benefits. Entire regions have been catapulted into prosperity and wars have been fought over the control of the resource.

At the same time, the ongoing effort to pivot to renewable energy is pushing many major oil exporters to diversify their economies. A notable example is Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth fund has invested in companies like Uber and WeWork.

However, the world still needs oil, as it supplies nearly one-third of global energy demand.