World oil production was 81.533 million barrels per day in 2007, a decrease of -0.2% from the previous year. Total world oil output in this note is summed from four major producing zones chosen because of the markedly different circumstances pertaining to each. An area plot shows production from the OPEC group of nations, the U.S.A., Eastern Europe/CIS (but not including new members of the expanded European Union), and the remainder termed Rest-of-World. After a long period of steady increases before 2004, R-O-W production fell 293,000 barrels per day in 2007 from the previous year. The share of the R-O-W group in world production also fell regularly to 32.3% in 2007 from the high of 36.5% reached in 2003. R-O- W production is also plotted separately versus OPEC production in a second graph for additional clarity.

The per capita consumption of oil and total primary energy were calculated for the world from 1965-2007 using data derived from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy and the World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S.A. Per capita world oil consumption had remained remarkably constant at an average 4.52 barrels per capita (Standard Deviation = 0.089) for the 24 years inclusive from 1983-2006. For the last four years, however, world per capita consumption has risen to 4.7 barrels per capita or slightly higher indicating the first major change has occurred in this empirical value for nearly a quarter-century. The per capita oil consumption of Canada was also compared with that of India: the value of the ratio of Canada to India of 28.4, was shown to be stabilizing after a period of steep decline which lasted until 2000.