During the opening of the First South American Energy Council, held in Caracas at PDVSA´s headquarters in La Campiña, the People’s Minister for Energy and Petroleum and president of Petroleos de Venezuela, Rafael Ramirez, announced that “in April we added 30 billion oil barrels of additional proven crude reserves from the Orinoco Oil Belt”.

“This figure places our country at a level of proven oil reserves of 130 billion barrels. Our goal is to certify 235 billion oil barrels by 2009”, informed Minister Ramirez.

“Of this quantity, 26.2 billion oil barrels come from the Carabobo Block, 12.9 billion from the Junin 4 Block and they have been certified by the Chinese company CNPC, 2.9 billion oil barrels come from the Ayacucho 7 Block where the Iranian company Petropar is participating, and 8 billion come from areas produced by the Joint Venture Companies we have incorporated with our partners Total, Statoil, British Petroleum and Chevron, namely Petrocedeño, Petropiar and Petromonagas”, he stated.

Minister Ramirez extended a warm welcoming to all UNASUR signatory countries, ascertained our country’s interest in making these reserves available to the South American Union, and made a recap of all agreements Venezuela is currently discussing with South American nations.

Also, “South American state-owned companies are participating in this certification process. We already have a draft development plan, which constitutes one of the central elements of the Energy Security Treaty, so that the oil reserves necessary for the development of our region can be used”, indicated Minister Ramirez.