Venezuela Looks to Expand Oil Reserves

Venezuela will begin selling off 27 new oil-exploration blocks in the Orinoco tar belt as soon as state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. finishes calculating the oil reserves in each zone, company president Rafael Ramirez said yesterday.

“We’ve begun the certification of all these reserves,” Ramirez told a news conference.

Venezuela looks to increase oil output to five million barrels a day by the end of the decade, with around one million new barrels coming from the Orinoco area, the largest hydrocarbons deposit on the planet.

Venezuela claims the Orinoco holds 235 billion barrels of oil reserves and plans to add those extra-heavy crude reserves to its 78 billion barrels of conventional oil reserves.

With those unconventional reserves included, Venezuela would surpass Saudi Arabia as the country with the world’s largest reserves.
Edmonton Sun