The first phase of the Mariscal Sucre Gas Project located in northeastern Venezuela will be ready by December, President Hugo Chávez announced Monday. The project will produce 300 million cubic feet of gas per day.

During the inauguration of a window factory affiliated with the state-run Petrochemical Corporation of Venezuela (Petrocasa), the Venezuelan president said that the plan aims to produce 1,200 million cubic feet of gas in the long term.

“Nobody knows how much gas the Orinoco Oil Belt has. Research conducted ​​by a  group of U.S. technicians estimated that it has 100 trillion cubic feet of gas, and if that were true we would rank as the first or second country in the world with the largest natural gas reserves,” he said.

“We share them with the world, but they belong to us first, and the benefits of these resources are going to be distributed in terms of equality and justice,” President Chávez said.

AVN / Press Office -Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / August 7, 2012