Gold will remain an important element of global monetary reserves.

Gold remains an important element of global monetary reserves.

All these factors are currently believed to contribute to global reserve.

The object of his power play: to create $50 billion in global reserves with the help of the donors.

The supermajors control an even smaller share of global reserves.

Chevron, meanwhile, is betting on Unocal's growth potential to help it increase production and add to its global reserves.

From Feb 2009 global reserves began increasing again to reach close to $9,200bn by the end of 2010.

Iraq's oil reserves are estimated at 100 billion barrels, roughly 10 percent of known global reserves.

Sterling is also the third most held reserve currency in global reserves (about 4%).

The result is that the ratio of known global reserves to annual global production is now far higher than it was in the late 70's.