Spanish:
 
|
Venezuela has the highest crude reserves in the world
The Daily Journal
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 03 30 06
A report published by The Wall Street Journal on its front page raised eyebrows on Wednesday for its claim that new technology has allowed multinational energy companies to reassess the amount of recoverable reserves in oil-rich countries.
According to staff reporter Russell Gold, deposits once dismissed as “unconventional” oil that could not be recovered economically are now, thanks to rising global oil prices and improved technology, being counted as recoverable reserves.
“That recalculation”, writes Gold, “has vaulted Venezuela and Canada to first and third in global reserves rankings, respectively, although Venezuela’s holdings in extra-heavy crude are a rough guess”.
The report asserts that Vene-zuela’s reserves in heavy and extra-heavy crude – 235 billion barrels approximately – are easier to be developed from a technical point of view than in other countries, due to their physical location.
A press release issued by Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), the state-run oil company, indicated that these new findings ratify the importance of Venezuela as the country with the highest crude reserves worldwide. PDVSA has been working with 6 multinational companies on its Proyecto Magna Reserva, designed to assess and certify reserves at the Orinoco Tar Belt.
In an interview with The Daily Journal, Bob Tippee, Editor-in-Chief of The Oil and Gas Journal, said that for Venezuela to exploit these heavy reserves, it will have to invest a massive amount of money intro the country’s energy infrastructure, something Tippee sees as a looming problem.
Multinational British Petroleum’s 2004 Statistical Review for World Energy estimated Venezuela’s total reserves at 77,2 billion barrels, or 6.5% of the world total.
Daily Journal 30 03 06Copyright © 2006 Daily Journal. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels