Venezuela Oil Reserves Could Be World's Largest: What It Means for the US

[Prometheus Bound]

Venezuela Oil Reserves Could Be World's Largest: What It Means for the US
(July 14) -- While the U.S. continues to grapple with the fallout of the BP oil spill, one nation is pressing forward with plans to become the world's leader in crude reserves. Venezuela has been making an enormous energy power play lately, registering massive oil deposits in the country's Orinoco Belt and increasing ventures with foreign nations including Vietnam, Belarus and Angola.

If all goes according to plan, Venezuela will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's most oil-rich country. As controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in a statement this weekend (via Reuters): "We hope to end 2010 with the incorporation of (another) 105 billion barrels of proven reserves. With this achievement, Venezuela would become the country with the biggest certified crude reserves (316 billion barrels) on the planet."

In January, the United States Geological Survey estimated that there may be more than 500 billion barrels of oil in Venezuela's Orinoco belt region. That's twice that of the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia, previously believed to be the world's most oil-rich country.

As such, it will be interesting to see how the tense Venezuela-United States relationship unfolds from here. The U.S., of course, remains far-and-away the world's No. 1 consumer of oil, glugging an estimated 19.5 million barrels daily, according to the latest CIA estimate.
http://www.aolnews.com/article/venezuela-oil-reserves-could-be-worlds-largest-what-it-means-f/19553943

Venezuela Signs Oil Deals with Vietnam, Belarus and Angola
Caracas, July 13th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuela has increased its number of oil joint ventures with developing countries after signing agreements with Vietnam, Belarus and Angola.

On June 30, Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA joined with its Vietnamese counterpart Petro-Vietnam Exploration and Production (PVEP) to form the joint venture Petromacareo in order to exploit reserves in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt.

A PDVSA statement said that the company would be “destined to the execution of primary production activities and the refinement of extra-heavy crude in the Junin 2 block of the Orinoco Belt.” PDVSA will have a 60% share in the company, which is expected to be producing 50,000 barrels per day (BPD) by 2012, reaching 200,000 BPD by 2016. Petromacareo also has plans to build a refinery in the state of Anzoátegui. Half of the 200,000 BPD expected to be produced in 2016 will be sent to a refinery in Vietnam, which is also to be built by the joint venture. The Vietnamese government paid Venezuela $584 million in order to take part in the joint venture.

The Orinoco Belt has the largest known oil reserves in the world.

Venezuela also signed a memorandum of understanding last week with Angola state oil company Sonangol and Cuban firm Cupet to exploit two oil fields in the Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui. The operation is projected to yield 20,000 BPD over five years.

Finally, PDVSA signed a joint venture with the state-owned Belarus oil company last week. Belarus is expected to import 320,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil in 2010 and more than twice that amount in 2011. Until now, Belarus has depended almost entirely on Russia for its fuel imports, but the two had a dispute over oil agreements earlier this year.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5489

Venezuela revels in oil reserves, challenges remain
Tue Jul 13, 2010 4:11pm GMT

* Could rank No.1 above Saudi Arabia

* Certification process should finish this year

* Extra heavy Orinoco crude needs capital, expertise

By Daniel Wallis

CARACAS, July 13 (Reuters) - Venezuela hopes to catapult past Saudi Arabia as the world leader in certified crude oil reserves when it finishes registering oil deposits in its vast Orinoco Belt this year.

An increase of 22.5 percent in the Latin American country's reserves was behind OPEC's announcement last week that the group's proven reserves rose in 2009 to 1.06 trillion barrels.

"We hope to end 2010 with the incorporation of (another) 105 billion barrels of proven reserves. With this achievement, Venezuela would become the country with the biggest certified crude reserves (316 billion barrels) on the planet," President Hugo Chavez's government said in a statement at the weekend.

Saudi Arabia has 265 billion barrels of reserves, according to its latest statement to OPEC. But its big advantage is that its oil is mostly light, conventional, easily-pumped crude.

Venezuela's Orinoco belt deposits are extra heavy tar-like sour crude that must be upgraded or mixed with a lighter grade to create an exportable blend. But there is a lot of it.

In January, the U.S. Geological Survey gave credibility to the Caracas government's long-held assertions by saying the Orinoco belt held some 513 billion barrels of crude that could be recovered -- if costs were not an issue.
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN1321458620100713?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

[corkhead]

1. Sounds like it is about time for us to go in and protect them from socialism

:sarcasm:

[Cleita]

2. It shouldn't mean anything to us, except that

Venezuela continues to sell us their petroleum, which they do now through CitGo and Valera. I know the US oil companies covet those reserves and have no boundaries about any and all Machiavellian schemes to get their hands on it, which is why they hate Hugo Chavez, who so far has outsmarted them every step of the way.