According to a 2025 survey, oil producers operating in the Permian region needed WTI oil prices to amount to a minimum of ** U.S. dollars per barrel in order to profitably drill a new well. This compared to a minimum breakeven price of ** U.S. dollars per barrel for existing wells. The monthly average WTI oil price ranged between ** and ** U.S. dollars per barrel around the time of the survey. Most productive oil basins Operators in shale basins have the lowest average breakeven prices for new wells. However, when it comes to existing wells, operators in the Permian (Delaware) basin can afford even lower oil prices. The Permian basin, located in Texas and New Mexico, accounts for the greatest U.S. oil production output of any region. In 2024, production in the Permian reached nearly *********** barrels per day - more than **** times the amount extracted from the neighboring Eagle Ford rock formation. Texas is leading oil producing state With both regions located in Texas, it is not surprising that this is also the leading crude oil producing U.S. state. Nearly two billion barrels worth of crude oil were extracted in Texas per year, far more than any other state. Texas is home to a total of five major oil and gas formations.

As of 2015, the value of breakeven oil price for Venezuela was ***** U.S. dollars per barrel compared to ** U.S. dollars per barrel in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco was evaluated as the world's most profitable company, whose initial public offering was planned to take place by the end of 2019.

Graph and download economic data for Breakeven Fiscal Oil Price for United Arab Emirates (AREPZPIOILBEGUSD) from 2000 to 2025 about United Arab Emirates, REO, oil, government, and price.

According to projections for 2025, the fiscal breakeven oil price for Saudi Arabia was **** U.S. dollars per barrel. The projections for Saudi Arabia's external breakeven oil price for the same period were at ** U.S. dollars per barrel. Saudi oil industry   Saudi Arabia’s oil industry entails ** percent of the world’s proven petroleum reserves. Their oil reserves were expected to exceed ** billion metric tons by 2020. Its oil sector accounted for about half of the country’s GDP in 2018, and about ** percent of their export income, as their oil reserves are the second largest in the world and they are the world’s leading petroleum exporter. Saudi Arabia has an advantage over other oil-producing countries as the extraction process is cheaper and easier relative to other regions. The petroleum is handled and mostly controlled by Saudi Aramco which is a public company and the most profitable country in the world as of 2019. The highest value petrochemicals project in the country in 2020 was the Amiral Complex: Ethylene & Propylene Plant. Saudi economy Saudi Arabia is the world’s leader in petroleum exportation. They also had the fifth-largest natural gas reserve in 2019. However, their significant reliance on these natural resources compelled the government to launch its Saudi Vision 2030, which aims on expanding their resources. As a result, in the first quarter of 2019, Saudi Arabia's budget has accomplished its first surplus since 2014 of more than ** billion U.S. dollars due to the increase of both the oil and non-oil revenues. Public debt witnessed a significant increase in 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic but was expected to slowly decrease in the following years. Non-oil revenues accounted for about ** percent of the country’s revenue in 2019 . The largest non-oil contributor to the country’s GDP was government services.

Graph and download economic data for Breakeven Fiscal Oil Price for Oman (OMNPZPIOILBEGUSD) from 2003 to 2025 about Oman, REO, oil, government, and price.

The projected fiscal breakeven oil price in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2025 was ** U.S. dollars per barrel. This represented a decrease from over ** U.S. dollars per barrel in 2023. Fiscal breakeven oil price as an indicator For the countries whose economies rely heavily on oil revenues, the fiscal breakeven oil price serves as an indicator of the country’s financial state. More specifically, it is the minimum barrel price the nation needs to cover its budget expenditures. For instance, the fiscal breakeven oil price in Kuwait was projected to be around ** U.S. dollars per barrel in 2025, while that of Qatar about ** U.S. dollars per barrel. This implies that the Qatari economy may be more resilient to oil price shocks than Kuwait, since it can endure lower prices. The UAE, fossil fuels, and sustainability Similar to other economies in the region, the UAE had a relatively high share of GDP attributed to oil and gas production. The UAE has large oil reserves, listing among the leading countries in terms of proved oil reserves worldwide. Nevertheless, an economy built around fossil fuels is harmful to the environment and susceptible to oil price shocks, and therefore unsustainable. For these reasons, the Emirati government has devised strategies to build a more resilient economy, that is less dependent on fossil fuels. For example, the planned energy distribution in the UAE aims for renewable energy sources to make up ** percent of the total by 2050.

This statistic shows the estimated breakeven oil prices for 2016 in Middle Eastern and Northern African countries, in U.S. dollars per barrel, based on imports. In that year, the breakeven oil price based on imports in Libya was some ****** U.S. dollars.

Breakeven oil prices A breakeven oil price is the price at which oil must be sold in order to recover the costs associated with its production. With the recent downturn in the global oil industry, breakeven oil prices are an important measure of an oil extractor's ability to remain profitable. Breakeven oil prices vary greatly throughout the world due to the widely differing costs associated with extracting different types of oil, the unique circumstances associated with oil extraction in different oil-producing regions, and so on.

In times of economic downturn, oil resources with higher breakeven costs are the first to be discontinued. Unconventional oil resources, such as oil sands and shale oil, are more expensive to produce than conventional oil, and therefore suffer when oil prices drop. Since the oil glut began in 2014, even conventional oil deposits that are more expensive to extract are decreasing production. This has lead to significant economic impacts in places where the economy is closely tied to oil, such as Venezuela, which has oil sands deposits in addition to conventional oil resources. While oil prices have increased slightly since a record low in January 2016, it is uncertain how long it will take for oil prices to recover more substantially, if at all.

Around ** percent of undeveloped offshore oil reserves worldwide have a breakeven price upward of ** U.S. dollars per barrel, as of June 2025. This is considering reserves with a recovery probability between 50 and 60 percent. By comparison, 42 percent of all such reserves are estimated to have a breakeven price below 35 U.S. dollars per barrel.

Graph and download economic data for Breakeven External Oil Price for Oman (OMNPZPIOILBEBUSD) from 2012 to 2025 about Oman, REO, oil, and price.

This statistic outlines the average cost to produce one barrel of oil in leading oil producing countries worldwide in 2015, by country and by expenditure. In that year, Kuwait had the lowest production costs per barrel of oil, at a total cost of 8.5 U.S. dollars per barrel of oil. Of that total cost, 3.7 U.S. dollars was capital expenditure costs, while the remaining 4.8 U.S. dollars was from operational expenditures.

1.1a: How does the country legally define the ownership of subsoil extractive resources? 1.1b: Who is the licensing authority (i.e. who has the authority to grant exploration and extraction rights to companies)? 1.1.3d: Is the licensing authority independent from the SOE? 1.1c: What licensing process does the licensing authority follow? 1.1.3a: Is the government required to set pre-defined criteria by which companies become qualified to participate in a licensing process? 1.1.3c: Prior to each license process, is the licensing authority required to disclose the rules governing the licensing process, such as auction or negotiation rules? 1.1.10d: Is the legislature required to ratify licenses/contracts? 1.1.2a: Does a government agency maintain a publicly available registry of rights and license details (i.e. a cadaster)? 1.1.2b: Is the publicly available registry of licenses/contracts available online, offline or in paper? 1.2a: What is the fiscal system for extractive resources? 1.2.5c: Do rules specify the level of state equity (or options for state equity such as carried interest) in extractive companies ? 1.2.6a: Is the government required to make all payments to the national treasury or deposit them into a national resource account, aside from amounts legally retained by SOEs? 1.3.7a: Are there rules governing compensation to landowners or land users when project development interferes with their access to or use of land? 1.3.7b: Are there specific procedures governing the resettlement of land users when project development interferes with their access to or use of land? 1.3.5b: Are there rules governing rehabilitation and closure of extractive projects? 2.3a: Does the country have a natural resource fund which is funded by extractive resource revenues? 4.2.1a: Does the state-owned enterprise publish information on expenditure for exploration and appraisal of new upstream projects in that reporting year? 4.2.1b: Does the state-owned enterprise publish information on expenditure for development of new upstream projects in that reporting year? 4.2.1c: Does the state-owned enterprise publish information on it's projected future expenditure on exploration, appraisal and the development of new projects? 4.2.1d: From 2019 onwards, has the government or a state-owned enterprise disclosed estimated break-even prices for current or projected future upstream projects? 5.6b: Do existing rules governing the compensation and resettlement process include the following principles: - principle of consent of affected persons - principle of replacement cost for compensation - the right to be assisted for the restoration of livelihoods - the right to appeal against decisions on compensations. 5.6c: Are there rules requiring the disclosure of the Resettlement Action Plan or the Livelihood Restoration Plan, in the event that they are required when a project interferes with people's livelihoods?