The
Orinoco Belt is a territory which occupies the
southSouth is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°....
ern strip of the
eastEast is a direction in geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points, opposite of west and at right angles to north and south. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise...
ern Orinoco River Basin in
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
. Its local
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
name is
Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco (Orinoco Petroleum Belt).
The Orinoco Belt is located south of the
GuáricoEstado Guárico is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided. The state capital is San Juan de Los Morros. Guárico State covers a total surface area of 64 986 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 745,100....
,
AnzoáteguiAnzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors...
,
MonagasEstado Monagas is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided.Monagas State covers a total surface area of 28,900 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 855,300....
, and
Delta AmacuroEstado Delta Amacuro is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided, and is the location of the Orinoco River delta. The Gulf of Paria and the Atlantic Ocean are found to the north, Estado Bolívar is found to the south, the Atlantic Ocean and Guayana Esequiba is found to the east, and...
states, and it follows the line of the river. It is approximately from east to
westWest is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points...
, and from
northNorth is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....
to south, with an area about .
The Orinoco Belt consists of large deposits of extra heavy crude (oil sands), known as the Orinoco Oil Sands or the Orinoco Tar Sands.
The
Orinoco Belt is a territory which occupies the
southSouth is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°....
ern strip of the
eastEast is a direction in geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points, opposite of west and at right angles to north and south. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise...
ern Orinoco River Basin in
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
. Its local
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
name is
Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco (Orinoco Petroleum Belt).
The Orinoco Belt is located south of the
GuáricoEstado Guárico is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided. The state capital is San Juan de Los Morros. Guárico State covers a total surface area of 64 986 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 745,100....
,
AnzoáteguiAnzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors...
,
MonagasEstado Monagas is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided.Monagas State covers a total surface area of 28,900 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 855,300....
, and
Delta AmacuroEstado Delta Amacuro is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided, and is the location of the Orinoco River delta. The Gulf of Paria and the Atlantic Ocean are found to the north, Estado Bolívar is found to the south, the Atlantic Ocean and Guayana Esequiba is found to the east, and...
states, and it follows the line of the river. It is approximately from east to
westWest is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points...
, and from
northNorth is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....
to south, with an area about .
Orinoco Oil Sands
The Orinoco Belt consists of large deposits of extra heavy crude (oil sands), known as the Orinoco Oil Sands or the Orinoco Tar Sands. The Orinoco Tar Sands are known to be one of the largest, if not the largest oil sand deposit in the world, along with the Athabasca Tar Sands in
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Venezuela's non-conventional oil deposits of about , found primarily in the Orinoco oil sands, are estimated to approximately equal the world's reserves of conventional oil.
Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. [Petroleums of Venezuela] is the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil, as well as exploration and production of natural gas...
has estimated that the producible reserves of the Orinoco Belt are up to which would make it the largest
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
reserveOil reserves are the estimated quantities of crude oil that are claimed to be recoverable under existing economic and operating conditions.The total estimated amount of oil in an oil reservoir, including both producible and non-producible oil, is called oil in place...
in the world, before
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
. Estimates goes as high as , while Venezuela's current exploitable reserves are of . It is currently divided into four exploration and production areas. These are: Boyacá (before Machete), Junín (before Zuata), Ayacucho (before Hamaca), and Carabobo (before Cerro Negro). The current exploration area is about 11,593 km².
Oil Sowing Plan 2005-2030
Source:The data in this article is taken directly from the official PDVSA web page.
Venezuela power policy guidelines until the year 2030 are drawn up in the "
Oil Sowing Plan” (
"Plan Siembra Petrolera"), which includes six development projects and consists of two stages: one to be executed in the period 2005-2012, and another, to be developed in the second stage, 2012 and 2030.
For the first period of this Plan, an overall investment of around US $56 billion has been estimated between 2005 and 2012. 70% of that amount will be financed by Venezuela — state operator — and the rest by the private sector.
Oil Sowing Plan 2005-2012 includes six fundamental axes:
- Magna Reserve: Destined toward the quantifying and certifying of oil reserves in the Orinoco Oil Belt. In a presentation given by PDVSA (held by Director Ignacio Layrisse) at the VII LAPEC conference in Buenos Aires, March 2001, the proven Venezuelan reserves were given as . Of this amount were heavy or extra heavy oil, including 37 billion reserves of extra heavy in the Orinoco Belt (1 in Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though the name 'machete' is more commonly known...
, 15 in Zuata, 6 in Hamaca and 15 in Cerro NegroCerro Negro is a volcano in the Cordillera de los Maribios mountain range in Nicaragua, about 10 km from the village of Malpaisillo. It is a very new volcano, the youngest in Central America, having first appeared in April 1850...
). This indicates that Venezuela’s reserves, according to PDVSA, in 2001 were excluding the Orinoco Belt.
- Orinoco Project: In charge of developing the Orinoco Belt. Twenty-seven blocks have been selected for development under this project with the cooperation of selected companies. Because of the strategic location of this hydrocarbon reservoir, it is considered of vital importance in reducing levels of overcrowding in some parts of the country and providing local employment. Services and housing will be developed to guarantee adequate oil exploitation.
- Delta-Caribbean Project: Gas
Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
will be incorporated to the country energy supply. This project pursues offshore gas development in the Deltana Platform off the coast of eastern Venezuela. Further developments are located in the Paraguaná PeninsulaThe Paraguaná Peninsula is a peninsula in Venezuela, situated in the north of Falcón state. The island of Aruba lies 27 km to the north. Bonaire and Curaçao are slightly further away. The Paraguaná Peninsula is connected to the rest of the state by a natural isthmus of Médanos. The Peninsula...
, to the north-west of the country.
- Refinement: To increase refinement capacity in Venezuela is one of PDVSA’s strategic goals. Oil Sowing Plan undertakes the creation of new refineries: Cabruta (with capacity for 400,000 extra-heavy crude barrels per day), Batalla de Santa Ines (50,000 barrels) and Caripito (50,000 barrels per day destined to asphalt production). With these three new refineries and the improvement of the existing ones, PDVSA’s processing capacity on Venezuelan soil will be increased to .
- Infrastructure: More filling centers and pipelines
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquid and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air have also been used....
will be set up to guarantee fuel supplies to the whole nation. The agreement for the construction of the Transguajiro gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia has been signed in 2005.
- Integration: According to Hugo Chavez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the President of Venezuela. As the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation...
's aims, oil is to be used as a geopolitical resource helping the integration of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela thus created PetrocaribePetrocaribe S. A. is a Caribbean oil alliance with Venezuela to purchase oil on conditions of preferential payment. The alliance was launched in June 2005. The payment system allows for a few nations to buy oil on market value but only a certain amount is needed up front; the remainder can be paid...
and signed the Petrosur agreement. A refinery was also to be built close to PetrobrasPetrobras , short for Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro....
in Brazil.
External links