Oil-Rich Venezuela Looks to Tar Deposits

Houston Chronicle – Beneath the plains and winding tributaries of the Orinoco River lie what Venezuela believes is the planet’s largest oil deposit _ a tar-soaked basin that could help meet spiraling global energy needs.

It’s known as the “Faja,” or “belt”: a strip three times the area of Kuwait potentially holding 1.2 trillion barrels of extra-heavy oil.

Jet-black, sticky and oozing like molasses, Orinoco oil was long written off as too difficult and costly to produce. Now rising oil prices make it increasingly attractive.
Houston Chronicle