Who has the largest emergency oil reserves?

China holds more emergency oil than every other country on this list combined, after stockpiling heavily through 2025. These figures were estimated before countries began releasing oil in response to the Iran war.

In millions of barrels

- "European countries” is the combined total for European members of the OECD, a group of mostly wealthy countries including Germany, France, the UK, Norway and Turkiye.
- China’s figure includes oil held by its state-owned oil companies as well as the government’s own reserve.
Source: US Energy Information Administration | October 11, 2026