A total of 7.4 billion barrels of oil has been added to Venezuela’s proven reserves. As a result, certified reserves rose to 142.3 billion barrels and Venezuela hiked to the second place in the world.
Based on a report of General Directorate of Hydrocarbons Exploration and Production, the new proven reserves come from the Junín area, Junín 1 block, Iguana Zuata and Zuata Norte oilfields, Orinoco Oil Belt.
In 1998, Venezuela’s proven reserves amounted to 76.1 billion barrels. Thanks to the startup of Orinoco Magna Reserva Socialist Project, from November 2006, the number of certified reserves has significantly grown.
The Orinoco Magna Reserva Socialist Project includes assessment of the oil originally in place. State-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and foreign companies take an active part in this project. The findings are submitted for certification of independent international companies and subsequently recorded in the Books of Oil Reserves approved on August 2007.
This accomplishment is the result of the perseverance and involvement of all the workers of the New PDVSA, who, committed to the model of a socialist company, do their best to assess the next-to-be the largest oil reserve in the world and make it available to humankind.
From 2006 to date, 62.9 billion barrels have been added in the aggregate, that is, 26.74 percent of total reserves within the Orinoco Magna Reserva Socialist Project.
In addition to new proven oil reserves, there are 418 billion cubic feet of proven reserves of associated natural gas.
A total of 8.428 billion cubic feet of gas has been certified, including an official amount of 2.530 billion cubic feet. The remainder is in the process of substantiation.
The existence of solution gas assessed and certified as gas associated to the oil at the Orinoco Oil Belt overrides the assumption that the hydrocarbons there are natural bitumen.
The Orinoco Magna Reserva Socialist Project is expected to be completed next year, with additional 172.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. In this way, Venezuela will reassert that it has the largest oil stocks in the world.