Recoverable oil reserves in the US has currently surpassed those in Saudi Arabia and Russia, making the US the world’s biggest country with oil reserves, according to an evaluation published by a Norway-based independent oil and gas data firm, Rystad Energy, reported RT.

The Guardian quoted the Head of Analysis at Rystad Energy, Per Magnus Nysveen, saying: “We have done this benchmarking every year, and this is the first year we have seen that the US is above Saudi Arabia and Russia.” He believed that the rise was due to a sharp increase in the number of discoveries in the Permian basin in Texas over the past two years.

The analytical firm reached the conclusion by recording each country’s economically viable reserves, distinguishing between those “in existing fields, in new projects, and potential reserves in recent discoveries and even in yet undiscovered fields.” The Oslo-based company found that the US had 264b barrels of oil in reserve, ahead of Russia with 256b barrels, and Saudi Arabia with 212b barrels of oil.

As Rystad Energy pointed out, it discovered that many members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries exaggerated the size of their reserves in self-reported surveys, which are in contrast to Rystad Energy’s findings.

Rystad’s report also wrote that “with the global car-park possibly doubling from 1b to 2b cars over the next 30 years, it becomes very clear that oil alone cannot satisfy the growing need for individual transport.” At the current rate of production, oil supplies are expected to only last for 70 more years, according to The Guardian.