The Orinoco Oil Belt is a massive reservoir stretching across the Venezuelan states of Guárico (in the central plains), Anzoategui and Monagas (in the northeast), which contains the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

Ramírez spoke at the first meeting of the Supreme Strategic Development of the Orinoco Oil Belt, a gathering of ministers, the board of directors of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and other public agencies related to the ​​environment, planning and finance, air and water, science and technology, and housing, among others. The meeting took place in São Tomé, an island nation off West Africa.

Ramírez, who also serves as president of PDVSA, said that of the total investment, $25 billion will go toward social projects for the integral development of the communities located in southeastern Venezuela.

The social projects include the construction of more than 100,000 homes, of which 10,000 are to be built during 2012.

“We are evaluating the housing shortage in the areas near to the belt, to link to the schedule of planning being conducted by the Housing Authority and address these needs. For now, this year we estimate the construction of 10,000 homes,” said Ramírez.

PDVSA’s president confirmed that the implementation of the housing projects will be carried out in an organized fashion, unlike in the past when oil enclaves were surrounded by pockets of poverty.

Pdvsa / Press-Venezuelan Embassy to  the U.S. / February 7, 2012

“It’s the first oil platform made here and operated by Venezuelans. It’s an historic moment in technological sovereignty. In 100 years of oil production it’s the first one ever to be made here,” said the president.

Located in the Gulf of Paria at the mouth of the Orinoco River, the offshore oil platform said weighs 8.2 tons and will be able to produce over 70,000 barrels of oil per day, according to engineers.

The platform was transported up the Orinoco River and through the Atlantic Ocean (via the city of Puerto Ordaz in Bolivar state in southwestern Venezuela) to the Corocoro West field in the Gulf of Paria in Sucre state in the northeastern region of the country to increase oil and gas production to 70,000 barrels per day. The platform is 252 feet long by 153 feet wide.

Water, gas and sediments that are mixed with the hydrocarbons in their natural state will be separated at this platform. Once the oil is extracted from the subsoil and goes through this process, it is transferred to a ship to be transported to exportation centers.

The $800-million construction project, which began in 2006, was implemented through an agreement between Venezuela and the Italian-run oil company Eni, as part of the joint venture Costa Afuera-Petrosucre.

YVKE Mundial / Press Office – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / February 3, 2012

In an interview in the Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Orinoco, Araque said that the grid will reach an optimum level in two years.

The Venezuelan government has invested over $7.6 million in improving the national electrical grid since 1999. Araque said he considers the electricity crisis experienced by the country in 2010 to have been solved “in the fundamental terms.”

Araque becomes Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on May 9, and will be replaced by Hector Navarro.

The outgoing minister said the turbines of the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Complex, the country’s most important dam, will be renovated with $700 million from the Inter-American Development Bank and $300 million from the Corporación Andina de Fomento.

Additionally, $6 billion will be invested for the construction of the Tocoma dam in southwestern Bolívar state, paving the way for energy savings of 70,000 barrels of oil per day.

Araque also mentioned a project as part of agreements between China and Venezuela, which will link a 754-mile line of the Tocoma dam with Uribante in the western state of Táchira.

AVN / Press Office – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / January 29, 2012  

The announcement came after a meeting of the Supreme Organ for the Monitoring of the Oil Belt Plan at the headquarters of Petrocedeño, a joint venture under the Venezuelan oil firm PDVSA, located in the northeastern state of Anzoátegui. The meeting included members of of PDVSA’s board of directors and representatives of the firms operating in the Orinoco Oil Belt.

Among the issues discussed was the current availability of active drills dedicated exclusively to the development of new production areas in Carabobo and Junín, which today contribute 430,000 barrels and 265,000 barrels of oil respectively to overall production in the Orinoco Oil Belt and finance PDVSA’s diverse activities.

One of the achievements highlighted at the meeting was the creation of the joint venture Petromacareo, formed by PDVSA and its Vietnamese counterpart Petrovietnam. Petro macareo recently began drilling its first successful oil well, which is expected to begin producion this July and could have an output of 20,000 barrels per day by December.

 Meanwhile, another project known as Petromiranda, a joint venture of PDVSA and Russian Consortium, is expected to begin in August and should produce 20,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. Drilling also began at Petrocarabobo, a PDVSA project with Spain’s Repsol, India’s ONGC and Malaysia’s Petronas, which is expected to produce 35,000 barrels a day.

3D seismic surveying is currently being carried out at the area assigned to Petromacareo with the participation of over one thousand workers in the central Venezuelan state of Guárico.

During Tuesday’s meeting, information was given about the functioning of a water treatment unit at PDVSA’s Petrocedeño facilities which will allow for the production of up to 60,000 barrels of sulfur-free crude oil lightened to an API gravity of 32°.

Minister Ramírez reiterated that the processes used to lighten crude oil at the complexes of Petroanzoátegui, Petropiar, Petrocedeño and Petromonagas are functioning normally, and that the Restoration Plan for Solids Management and the removal of impurities like sulfur is moving ahead, and is expected to finish its work in September.

Petróleos de Venezuela / Press Office – Embassy of Venezuela to the U.S. / January 25, 2012

During a review of reports and investment data, Minister Navarro, who was appointed by President Hugo Chávez on January 18, praised the high level of investments made by the country in energy generation, transmission and distribution.

During a televised interview, Navarro, who is an electric engineer and served as a deputy in the National Assembly, highlighted that funds were approved to create an educational institute for energy research, development and training.

He said that this institute “will assist all our professionals that graduate from universities or technical schools and must complete their training in the practical aspects of the electric industry.”

Regarding the development of alternative energy, Navarro highlighted Venezuela’s potential to generate wind power in the peninsulas of La Guajira and Paraguaná.

Outgoing Electricity Minister Alí Rodríguez, who will soon be appointed Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), said last Wednesday that Venezuela could generate 20,000 megawatts of wind energy.

“These are not long-term projects,” Navarro said, indicating that development could begin soon.

The minister placed particular emphasis on the work of the electricity committees, local community groups that monitor the supply of electricity and gas, and said that they continue to operate. Additionally, he urged the community councils to continue their active participation in those matters.

Navarro also said that the government will continue working to consolidate the National Electricity Corporation (Corpoelec), a conglomerate of 14 companies of electricity generation and distribution.

“We have to be patient, we have achieved a lot. Very soon we will have a more reliable grid,” he said.

AVN / Press Office – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / January 20, 2011

The statement came last Friday during the president’s presentation of the country’s 2011 achievements before lawmakers in the National Assembly.

Last year, the Orinoco Oil Belt was proven to contain 297 billion barrels oil, although a U.S. report points out that the figure could be double that amount, the Venezuelan president noted.

“That’s the wealth we have there,” said the Venezuelan leader, highlighting the importance of recovering national sovereignty in the Orinoco Oil Belt, which is home to the planet’s largest proven oil reserves.

Chávez said that the Bolivarian Revolution would be remembered for having achieved national independence for Venezuela.

AVN / Presidential Press Office / January 17, 2012

On Sunday, speaking from the Orinoco Oil Belt, the president said Venezuela will not recognize any decision by the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in the lawsuit brought by the U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil against PDVSA for the nationalization of its assets in 2007.

“Exxon Mobil was expecting to charge PDVSA $12 billion, and in the end we’re going to pay $200 million. They are immoral. Despite the decision in Paris, now they threaten us with the ICSID, an organization from which we have to withdraw. We will not recognize any decision by the ICSID. They expect the impossible,” Chávez said.

The Venezuelan president said that the $12 billion requested by Exxon Mobil in compensation for the nationalization of the Cerro Negro project located in the Orinoco Oil Belt shows the agenda of the company, which he said has stolen from Venezuela during 50 years of oil exploitation.

“They expected to steal from us again. What moral parameters does that company have? That’s the sort of people that owned all this [Orinoco Oil Belt], it’s the empire and its tentacles. They would pay whatever they wanted in taxes,” Chávez added.

The president said the oil firm also threatened to seize PDVSA’s subsidiary in the U.S., CITGO Petroleum Corporation, which “must be worth about $20 billion.”

“They will see, we won’t give in to imperialism,” highlighted the Venezuelan president.

President Chávez also commented on the importance of creating an organization within UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) for settling differences among companies in the region so that Latin American countries don’t have to appeal to organizations based in the U.S. and Europe.

AVN / Press Office – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / January 8, 2012   

During a press conference at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Chávez said: “This is a country that makes decisions in the framework of the constitution and laws. I say this because there are some people trying to forget it or tarnish it. Venezuela’s sovereignty is respected. It’s a shame to see how even some Venezuelans give opinions contrary to the sovereignty of their own contry and the sovereign decisions of their own government.”

After verdict of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said Monday that it shall pay only $255 million over the next 60 days to Exxon Mobil in compensation for the Cerro Negro project located in the Orinoco Oil Belt, which was nationalized in 2007.

PDVSA explained in a press release that the payment of $255 million comes after subtracting from the given compensation of $907 million a series of debts owed by Exxon to PDVSA.

Chávez ratified that Venezuela is a sovereign state and that the government will continue acting in favor of the national interest.

“During the whole process of recovering national sovereignty, since 12 years ago, we have been facing not only lawsuits, but coups, oil and economic sabotages just for having made the decision to be free and exercise our sovereignty,” he said.

Chávez recalled that all governments that attempted to manage Venezuela’s natural resources with freedom and sovereignty were overthrown, including – however briefly – his own government.

The leader lamented that Exxon Mobil arrogantly refused to reach an agreement with the Venezuelan state, reiterating that the amount sought by the transnational company was $12 billion.

“It’s insane!” Chávez said. “It’s such an insane position taken by this company than the decision [of the court] recognizes less than 10 percent of what they were asking for. How much must these companies have robbed in the last hundred years? They stole from us; they had to pay us back for damages made in the last hundred years; the capital they have wouldn’t be enough,” Chávez said.

The Venezuelan government has demonstrated on several occasions its willingness to compensate investments made by private companies before the sovereign decisions to nationalize strategic assets of interest to the country, as long as the compensations are fair and reasonable.

AVN / Press Office – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / January 4, 2012

PDVSA explained that the payment of $255 million comes after subtracting from the given compensation of $907 million a series of debts owed by Exxon to PDVSA, said the oil company in a press release.

According to the statement, the debts include “$191 million owed by Exxon in loans to PDVSA for financing the Cerro Negro project; $300 million that Exxon Mobil had frozen in PDVSA’s bank accounts in New York during the early phases of legal actions in 2007 and $160 million in counterclaims that the ICC court credited to PDVSA over the next 60 days.”

PDVSA pointed out that the arbitration initiated by an Exxon Mobil subsidiary against PDVSA and PDVSA Cerro Negro after Venezuela’s decision to nationalize the Orinoco Oil Belt in 2007 claimed that the initial amount claimed of $12 billion plus interests “was completely excessive and completely illogical.”

In January 2008, Exxon Mobil tried to freeze PDVSA’s assets worldwide through a suit in London’s High Court of Justice.

In its statement, PDVSA notes that “Since that date, the Venezuelan state and PDVSA kept the stance that such amount was out of reality. After four years of suit, the real amount determined by the ICC Court represents, in fact, less than the exorbitant amount initially claimed,” the statement says.

Furthermore, PDVSA recognized that the compensation amount is consistent with what it had publicly declared since the beginning of the suit, that “Exxon Mobil’s claims were really exaggerated” and that it is prepared to make it effective in the coming 60 days once the amounts to which it has rights are accredited.

“If Exxon Mobil would have been able to accept a reasonable compensation, which has been confirmed by the Court, an arbitration would not have been necessary,” the state-owned oil company said.

Exxon Mobil has also filed a suit against Venezuela before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, for the same nationalization process.

“If Exxon Mobil continues with that second suit and its efforts to achieve an exorbitant compensation for the nationalization, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will take all necessary steps to defend itself, as PDVSA has done in this case of arbitration before the ICC,” the company warned.

The Venezuelan government has demonstrated on several occasions its willingness to compensate investments made by private companies before the sovereign decisions to nationalize strategic assets of interest to the country, as long as the compensations are fair and reasonable.

“The government will defend the interests of the nation when private investors decide to appeal to international arbitrations, even when these are rejected by the Venezuelan state for being lascivious to the jurisdictional sovereignty and which were imposed by [previous governments] during a terrible process of neoliberal oil opening,” Petroleos de Venezuela remarked.

AVN / Press Office – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / January 2, 2012

At a meeting with the media on Thursday, the Minister of People’s Power for Electric Energy, Ali Rodriguez Araque said: “currently we have 18,000 MW, while the demand for electricity stands at 16,000 MW.”

Some of the most important works to have entered into operation are: Las Bracazas (340 MW) and Picure(88 MW) in Vargas state, La Raisa I (180 MW) in Miranda and Sidor plant (175 MW) in Bolivar. These projects, besides contributing to the country’s capacity to generate electricity, are reducing dependence on the Guri Dam (in the state of Bolivar).

Rodríguez Araque said that this year a project to start developing hybrid systems began (photovoltaic, wind turbines and heat) with the installation of 3 sets in the state of Zulia and 273 sets in isolated communities in nine states, for a total of 273.

“The sources of thermal energy will be used more as a reserve than as a primary source, in case of little wind or sun,” said the Minister. He further stressed that this year a wind power system was installed in the Guajira in Zulia state, which  will provide 25 MW.

“The plan is to reach 75 MW and keep increasing the generation capacity, which according to the measurements is 10,000 MW power in this region and from 20 MW to the national level, ” he said.

In terms of power transmission from January to December 2011, six major projects began operating, including the substations Danto (115/35 kW), Los Andes (115 / 13.8 kV), Los Laureles (115/13, 8 kV) and San Isidro (115/13, 8 kV) in the state of Zulia and the substation Juana la Avanzadora (230/115 kV) and the High Voltage Line, The Furrial (400/230 kV) in the state of Monagas.

“This year 160 transformers were installed and the Ministry began the installation of another 40,” he said. For the development of these initiatives, the State’s investment in the electricity sector increased by 38%, from 21.8 million Bolivars in 2010 to 30.1 Bolivars in 2011. “We also managed to bring together and merge 14 pre-existing utilities in the National Electricity Corporation (Corpoelec),” said the Minister.

YVKE  Mundial/ Press – Embassy of Venezuela to the U.S. / December 23,  2011