Venezuela, Iran Sign Deal to Explore Orinoco Oil Reserves

The Orinoco region has reserves of heavy oil and bitumen, tarry substances which can be used to make synthetic oil. Four heavy-crude upgrading projects in the area currently produce as much as 600,000 barrels a day of synthetic oil.

The project is part of a larger plan to document Venezuela’s proven oil reserves, to vastly increase the value of oil to the nation. Venezuela’s proven oil reserves are around 81 billion barrels, but the government believes that some 235 billion barrels of deposits are lying, undocumented, in the Orinoco belt.

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