Historically, major tar-producing regions included Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia, and later parts of North America for naval stores. Industrial coal tar production followed coal and gas industries rather than forest regions.
There is no single answer across all centuries and tar types. Wood tar production was strongest where forests, resinous trees, labour, and trade routes met. Sweden and Finland are especially important in the history of Scandinavian pine tar. Russia and Norway also belong to the northern tar story.
In the Atlantic world, North America became important for naval stores, especially products from pine forests such as tar, pitch, rosin, and turpentine. These materials fed shipbuilding, maritime trade, and imperial supply chains. The phrase naval tar belongs to that wider world of strategic materials.
Coal tar is different. It followed coal processing, coke-making, gasworks, and industrial chemistry. Countries with large coal industries could produce large amounts of coal tar regardless of whether they had pine forests. That makes rankings difficult unless the type of tar and period are specified.
The careful answer is that northern Europe dominated many older wood-tar traditions, North America became important in naval stores, and industrial coal tar followed industrial coal economies. A precise top list needs a date and definition.