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SOUTH
AMERICA |
Venezuela Bound to Lead World
Oil Reserves
CARACAS - With proven oil reserves
amounting to 211.1 billion barrels,
Venezuela stands today in second place after
Saudi Arabia in world ranking, but this year
the South American nation intends to reach
316 billion barrels to become the largest
reservoir in the planet.
The leading role was confirmed by president
Hugo Chavez due to the recovery policy of
oil sovereignty and the rescue of the
Orinoco oil belt.
Last March 18th Venezuela added officially
39.9 billion barrels for a rise of 22.5
percent of the certified extractible crude
with a 20 percent recovery rate, according
to the country's current technology.
Most of the added reserves were found in the
blocks Junin, Ayacucho and Boyaca of the
Orinoco Belt, a region of over 30 thousand
square miles, whose heavy and extra heavy
oil was considered bituminous previously.
More than a technical denomination,
denounced Chavez, the category given allowed
its exploitation at the price of coal by the
transnational corporations and prevented its
incorporation to the national reserves.
For many experts it was a premeditated
policy to leave that enormous deposit of 272
billion barrels as a strategic reserve in
the hands of transnational corporations when
light oil disappeared.
Venezuelan authorities see in those immense
fuel resources the hostility of the United
States to its current government, one of
whose main lines was the recovery of control
over its oil industry.
Venezuelan oil reach points to be greater at
medium and long terms and according to the
US Geological Survey, the extractible crude
can go over the 500 billion-barrel mark with
already existing technologies for a recovery
rate of 40 percent.
That perspective is being analyzed by the
Venezuelan government which projects an
investment of 80 billion dollars in the four
areas of the Orinoco Oil Belt: Boyaca, Junin,
Ayacucho and Carabobo.
For its prospection, certification and
exploitation, those zones were divided into
27 blocks of 300 square miles each, whose
perspectives have attracted over 30 foreign
enterprises.
As part of the oil sovereignty policy, the
country established that hydrocarbon
exploitation will be done by Petroleos de
Venezuela (PDVSA) or joint ventures under
Venezuelan state operative control through
the state company.
That put an end to the so-called "oil
opening" that the parliament termed as an
undercover privatization through service
contracts in which the foreign companies
barely paid one percent of royalties and 34
percent in taxes.
Today the Venezuelan state has no less than
60 percent of the actions, in companies
constituted by direct exploitation
assignment or by bids.
There is a minimum charge of 20 percent to
prevent abusive practices like those
previously registered when there was an
eight percent rate pursuing exaggerated
profits.
Royalties were fixed at 33.33 percent and
taxes of 50 percent on income to guarantee
that oil benefits remain in the country.
Also, the companies selected commit to the
installation of improvers in order to allow
the use of heavy and extra heavy crudes of
the belt.
The conditions have resulted attractive to
big and medium-sized companies throughout
the world as US Chevron, Spanish Repsol,
Italian ENI, Russian Gazprom, Rosneft y
Lukoil, Chinese CNPC, Petrovietnam and
others.
This diversity has brought another
advantage, ending with the dependence on the
market, as previously Venezuelan oil was
exported only to the United States.
The acceptance of the new rules, only
rejected by Exxon and ConocoPhillips, and
the expansion policy foresees that Venezuela
passes during the next years from current
production of 3.1 million barrels per day to
five million barrels.
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