The total estimated amount of oil in an oil reservoir, including both producible and non-producible oil, is called oil in place. However, because of reservoir characteristics and limitations in petroleum extraction technologies, only a fraction of this oil can be brought to the surface, and it is only this producible fraction that is considered to be reserves. The ratio of producible oil reserves to total oil in place for a given field is often referred to as the recovery factor. Recovery factors vary greatly among oil fields. The recovery factor of any particular field may change over time based on operating history and in response to changes in technology and economics. The recovery factor may also rise over time if additional investment is made in enhanced oil recovery techniques such as gas injection, surfactants injection, water-flooding, or microbial enhanced oil recovery.

Based on data from OPEC at the beginning of 2011 the highest proved oil reserves including non-conventional oil deposits are in Venezuela (20% of global reserves), Saudi Arabia (18% of global reserves), Canada (13% of global reserves), Iran (9%).

Amy Myers Jaffe is the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Jaffe attended Swampscott High School in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

Jaffe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Near Eastern Studies and Arabic from Princeton University. She is often interviewed by the media and gives lectures to groups such as the Women's Energy Network (WEN) of Houston.

Jaffe's research focuses on oil geopolitics, strategic energy policy, and energy economics. She is widely published in academic journals and is a frequent keynote speaker at major energy industry conferences. Jaffe is a widely quoted commentator on oil and energy policy in the international media and has provided testimony on Capitol Hill on energy matters. She appears regularly on a variety of television news stations and programs.

Jaffe served as member of the reconstruction and economy working group of the Baker/Hamilton Iraq Study Group and was a major contributor to the recent joint Baker Institute/CFR task force on Guiding Principles for U.S. Post-Conflict Policy in Iraq . She has also served as an advisor to the U.S. National Intelligence Council Study on Energy to 2015, as project director for the Baker Institute/CFR task force on Strategic Energy Policy, and as a principal advisor to USAID's project on Options for Developing a Long Term Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry. She is currently serving as a strategic advisor to the American Automobile Association (AAA) of the United States helping the motor club fashion a voice for the American motorist in the U.S. energy policy debate.

Charles William Boustany, Jr. (pronounced /bʊˈstæni/; born February 21, 1956) is the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 7th congressional district, serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Boustany was born in Lafayette to the former Madlyn M. Ackal and Charles W. Boustany, Sr., M.D. (1930–2009); his paternal grandparents, Alfred Frem Boustany and the former Florida Saloom, were immigrants from Lebanon. The senior Boustany, a Democrat, served for sixteen years as coroner of Lafayette Parish. Congressman Boustany has nine siblings: James Boustany, Jon Boustany, Ron Boustany, Dr. Stella Boustany Noel, Terese Reggie, Kathryn Scurlock, Madlyn Juneau, Adele Weber, and Cheryn Eppley.

Boustany, Jr., attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University. Boustany is a heart surgeon, who completed his residency in Rochester, New York before returning to Louisiana to take a job at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.