The Orinoco Oil Belt

Edilberto Méndez Amador

THE Venezuelan government is moving forward with an important expansion of its oil operations in the Orinoco Belt, considered the largest deposit of crude in the world, conscious of the fact that this area is the driving force within the national economy.

The region, with an area of 55,314 square kilometers, is located on the banks of the Orinoco River in central Venezuela, in the states of Guárico, Anzoátegui and Monagas.

Between 2006 and December of 2010 a process of certification of the reserves was carried out, which verified the existence of 296,500 million barrels, making Venezuela the country with the world’s largest oil reserves.

Energy Minister Rafael Ramírez, recently emphasized that thanks to the government policy of taking control of natural resources, Venezuela was able to ensure that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) recognized the volume of oil possessed by the nation.

He added that over the last five years, Venezuela has increased its proven reserves by 271%, saying "Our technical teams have done very important work to ensure the certification of reserves."

President Chávez has said that, given the certification of reserves, the country is in a position to produce 10 million barrels of oil a day.

"We are currently producing three million barrels of crude a day and we hope to increase that figure this year to 3.5 million and 1.5 million of the total will come from the Orinoco Oil Belt," the Minister reported, continuing, "One day we will be producing 10 million barrels daily. It’s reachable by 2039 since by 2019, Venezuela will increase production to six million barrels."

For drilling operations, the Orinoco Belt has been divided into four areas,

Boyacá, Junín, Ayacucho and Carabobo, and sub-divided into 27 blocks of approximately 500 square kilometers each.

Ramírez explained that in order to reach the production goal in the region, six crude oil improvement facilities, two refineries and 520 macollas, or groups of connected wells, are planned. All of this means the drilling of 10,570 wells and the erection of six terminals to transport and store the crude.

Additionally, construction began December 24, 2011 on a 160-kilometer pipeline, with a capacity of 700,000 barrels a day, which should be completed by the end of 2012, located in the Los Potocos area, in Anzoátegui state’s Simón Bolívar municipality.

The region is also rich in gas and therefore the President has directed experts within the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, to develop technologies to capture this fuel, looking to use it to generate electricity which can be added to the national grid.

Eulogio del Pino, PDVSA vice president for exploration and production, explained that the company has completed a project using low pressure gas to generate some 30 megawatts of electricity and said that the Belt contains close to 11.33 trillion cubic meters of such gas, which must now be certified. PDVSA will be working on this certification, submitting their findings to an analysis based on international standards