Canada (13% of global reserves) Iran (9%) Iraq (8%) Based on data from BP (British Petroleum), at the end of 2016 proved gas reserves were dominated by three countries: Iran, Russia, and Qatar, which together held nearly half the world's proven reserves. According to the US CIA The World Factbook, the US has the 5th largest reserves of natural gas. Proven reserves (also called measured reserves, 1P, and reserves) is a measure of fossil fuel energy reserves, such as oil reserves, natural gas reserves, and coal reserves.It is defined as the "[q]uantity of energy sources estimated with reasonable certainty, from the analysis of geologic and engineering data, to be recoverable from well established or known reservoirs with the existing To add to Patrick Cooper's good discussion of the steps in identifying worthwhile areas to drill it is worth looking at some of the tools used to see what is underground. When you are in undrilled terrain and there are no existing holes with logs