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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Venezuela oil 'may double Saudi Arabia' | |
| 2010-07-14 | |
A new US assessment of Venezuela's oil reserves could give the country double the supplies of Saudi Arabia. Scientists working for the US Geological Survey say Venezuela's Orinoco belt region holds twice as much petroleum as previously thought. The geologists estimate the area could yield more than 500bn barrels of crude oil.
The USGS team gave a mean estimate of 513bn barrels of "technically recoverable" oil in the Orinoco belt. Chris Schenk of the USGS said the estimate was based on oil recovery rates of 40% to 45%. Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela's state oil company, has not commented on the news. However, Venezuelan oil geologist and former PDVSA board member Gustavo Coronel was sceptical. "I doubt the recovery factor could go much higher than 25% and much of that oil would not be economic to produce", he told Associated Press news agency. Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves of any Opec country outside the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has proven reserves of 260bn barrels. | |
| Posted by: |
| #9 Time for Columbia to invest in horizontal drilling technology Heck, maybe we should, too! |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-07-14 23:12 |
| #8 Most of the oil from Venezuela is crap and only a few refineries in the world are capable of refining it. This is a case of an overabundance of something very few people want. Oil shale would be more economical to process than this crude. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2010-07-14 21:32 |
| #7 Time for Columbia to invest in horizontal drilling technology. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-07-14 19:13 |
| #6 So how come the good ol' USofA is examining geological resources and commenting on them for countries not so very friendly to us? first the revealing of all the mineral wealth in Afghanistan and now Hoogo's oil reserves? Why don't we bill them for the consulting effort? |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2010-07-14 13:55 |
| #5 So, can we nuke Saudia now? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-07-14 13:27 |
| #4 How much damage can Chavez's cow-handed clowns do to the fields through mis-management and neglect? Is it still technically recoverable if ignorant politically-appointed imbeciles step on their own dicks in the process of failing to learn on the job? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-07-14 13:06 |
| #3 More important, "peak oil" takes it in the pants again. Those jewels must be achin' pretty good by now... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2010-07-14 12:06 |
| #2 It ain't worth squat if ya can't get it outta the ground. |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-07-14 11:48 |
| #1 Much of that oil is very high sulphur glop that is more like sludge than oil. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2010-07-14 11:26 |