OIL AND ENERGY
Oil
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Venezuela is a producer and exporter of oil, and one of the main oil suppliers of the United States. -
Venezuela produces 3.25 million barrels of oil per day. Venezuela is the second-largest oil producer in Latin America and the sixth-largest oil exporter in the world.
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Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves of the Western Hemisphere. For 2008, oil reserves were estimated at 152.6 billion barrels. For 2010, Venezuela will have 316 billion barrels of confirmed oil reserves, making it the country with the greatest single oil reserves in the world.
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Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) is the Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. It has more than 15 subsidiaries and 50,000 workers. PDVSA develops activities in the area of gas, oil, petrochemicals and coal.
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PDVSA is amongst the top five oil companies in the world.
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PDVSA owns the CITGO Corporation, a U.S. based oil company with multiple refiniries and some 13,000 gas stations and retail outlets throughout the U.S.
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Venezuela, as a main shareholder of PDVSA, directs much of the country’s oil revenues towards programs to benefit the social welfare of the population affected by natural disasters or the world crisis. Likewise, the country has signed international agreements to promote economic and social development in the region, through the effective and proper use of Venezuelan energy resources. The CITGO Heating Oil Program is one of these initiatives.
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PDVSA owns the CITGO Corporation, a U.S. based oil company with multiple refiniries and some 13,000 gas stations and retail outlets throughout the U.S.
CITGO Heating Oil Program
The CITGO Heating Oil Program was created in 2005 to help low-income families in the U.S. that could not afford to pay for heating oil and did not have any way to get heat in the winter. The initiative came from Venezuela — the main shareholder of PDVSA, the parent company of CITGO — and was promoted by President Hugo Chavez. It arose after hurricanes Katrina and Rita impacted the oil supply and prices. Likewise, it responds to a request made by some U.S. senators for oil companies operating in the U.S. to give financial support to low-income families. This program is developed by CITGO in partnership with the NGO Citizens Energy Corporation.
Natural Gas
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Gas now occupies an important space in the world energy setting. -
Venezuela has great potential as an energy supplier of gas due to its abundant gas reserves, its profitable geographical position and its geopolitical importance. These factors make Venezuela, along with Trinidad and Tobago and Bolivia, one of the world’s five largest reservoirs of gas besides Russia, the Middle East, North Africa and North America.
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Venezuela has 180 trillion cubic feet of confirmed natural gas reserves, and more than 195 trillion cubic feet of possible reserves. Many of these reserves are found under the sea of Venezuela’s eastern coast.
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Of the natural gas reserves in the country, 70% is located in east, 23% in west and the remainder in waters further off the coast.
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Venezuela also has reserves of Free Natural Gas, which can stand on its own with no petroleum and is produced like a gas; and Associated Natural Gas, which is found in the same place as petroleum is produced jointly with it.
Electric Power
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Seventy five percent of the electric power in Venezuela is hydro-electric. -
The hydro-electric potential of the country is over 83,433 megawatts.
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In spite of the high investments that hydro-electric production requires, its development has been seen as an important national project and has permitted Venezuela to free a significant volume of oil and petroleum for the export.
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The greatest quantity of electricity utilized in th home, offices, commercial centers, industries and hospitals is generated at the Raúl Leoni Hydroelectric Power Station — better known as Guri Dam — in the State of Bolívar.
Mineral Resources
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Venezuela possesses a great variety of mineral deposits, many of which are found in the Guyana Shield to the southeast of the country. In this important area, deposits of iron, bauxite, gold, diamonds, kaolin, barita and manganese can be found. -
In the north of Venezuela, valuable deposits of coal, nickel, zinc, copper, silver, leads, silicon sands and chromium are found.
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Currently, more than 30 minerals and other related substances are being exploited for the economic benefit of the nation.
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The mining history of the country goes back more than 400 years.
Consult the list of minerals in Venezuela here. Consult the map of minerals in Venezuela here.
