Posted on 03/19/2010 5:37:42 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
IsraelNN.com) Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey announced Friday that approximately 513 billion barrels of “technically recoverable” oil were found in the Orinoco belt region of Venezuela – twice as much as previously believed.
Outside the Middle East, the largest oil reserves in the world exist in Venezuela. The Orinoco region spans a 50,000-square-kilometer (19,305-square-mile) area in the eastern portion of the country. Nearly 20 foreign oil companies hold contracts there, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.
The USGS estimate outstrips the best-case scenario presented by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and equals about double the supplies in Saudi Arabia, which owns a proven reserve of 260 billion barrels.
Chavez, a close associate of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took the opportunity last January during Israel's counterterrorism Operation Cast Lead to cut Venezuela's long-standing diplomatic ties with the Jewish State. He is also deeply critical of the United States.
Venezuelan oil geologist Gustavo Coronel, a former board member of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the country’s state oil company, tried to play down the importance of the discovery. He told the Associated Press that the U.S. estimate was too high, saying, “I doubt the recovery factor could go much higher than 25 percent, and much of that oil would not be economic to produce.” PDVSA has estimated the area contains a total of 1.3 trillion barrels of oil – but only 280 billion are actually recoverable - compared with the 45% estimated as recoverable by the USGS.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Couldn’t find that this had been posted.
Naturally they omit that the US has 1.35 trillion bbls of oil...
Why did Bush go all the way to Iraq to steal their oil? He could have just invaded Venezula.
too bad Barrack Chavez isn’t gonna be around much longer
Oil seems to poison the third world societies that possess it. Governments can get away with squelching personal initiative, because they can just suck the money out of the ground when they need it.
Peak oil! Peak oil! Very little there, can’t be recovered anyway, low quality, etc.
Just thought I’d get ahead of the naysayers.
Look, we always get accused of being imperialists...
let’s just go ahead and do it...
5,000 Marines and a carrier or two and we could own it!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Take half the oil for ourselves and sell the rest to set up a real democracy and we are looking at a win/win!!
Tough crap for Hugo, all of our oil being under “his” country, eh?
They mix Venezuelan heavy with Russian light crude (Which Russia just found a bunch more themselves(...
You forgot the (/sarcasm) tag!!!
It’s amazing how easily we find oil under other
countries...
Is there any doubt that were we to start drilling
and expanding on the known fields we have that
other new deposits would not come to light?
Drill for America, IN America,By Americans!
While I am not saying it is planned, but it sure seems cyclic.
Higher prices on anything always brings forth new discoveries.
Once prices fall new discoveries are forsaken. But having lived my entire life in the carbon bond generated energy era it does raise my interest.
I believe in the relationship of supply and demand but I also believe in false shortages and and false prices that are the natural consequence of market manipulation.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/texas-university-has-eureka-moment-for-coal-to-gas/article1502823/
I don’t understand why OUR U.S. Geological Survey is spending money to assess this oil field for Hugo Chavez.
Probably because it doesn't matter. We don't seem to have the desire to drill for it.
It is a good, low cost, fuel for power plants but you need the low grade crude to produce it.
There might be one or two small scale plants in the US that can burn oreimulsion fuel but it won't ever go full scale in the US.
One more reason to send Tio Hugo an F-18 greeting card
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.