Orinoco Belt

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The Orinoco Belt is a territory which occupies the southern strip of the eastern Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela. Its local Spanish name is Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco (Orinoco Petroleum Belt).

The Orinoco Belt is located south of the Guárico, Anzoátegui, Monagas, and Delta Amacuro states, and it follows the line of the river. It is approximately 600 kilometres from east to west, and 70 km from north to south, with an area about 55314 km².

Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. has estimated that the Orinoco Belt has 236 billion barrels of heavy crude, which would make it the largest petroleum reserve in the world.

It is currently divided into four exploration and production areas. These are: Boyacá (before Machete), Junín (before Zuata), Ayacucho (before Hamaca), and Carabobo (before Cerro Negro). The current exploration area is about 11,593 km².

[edit] Oil Sowing Plan 2005-2030

Venezuela power policy guidelines until the year 2030 are drawn up in the appropriately named, "Oil Sowing Plan” ("Plan Siembra Petrolera"), which includes six impressive development projects and consists of two stages: one to be executed in the period 2005-2012, and another, to be developed in the second stage, 2012 and 2030.

For the first period of this Plan, an overall investment of around US $56,000 billion has been estimated between 2005 and 2012. 70% of that amount will be financed by Venezuela -- state operator -- and the rest by the private sector.

Oil Sowing Plan 2005-2012 includes six fundamental axes:

1.-Magna Reserve: Destined toward the Quantifying and certifying of oil reserves in the Orinoco Oil Belt; thus, an integrated geological study will be made of these reserves. Let us remember that Venezuela has (excluding the Orinoco Belt, 77 billion barrels of petroleum, whereas in the vast Orinoco zone, 235 million barrels are registered.

Comment: The data in this article is taken directly from tha official PDVSA web page.

In a presentation given by PDVSA (held by Director Ignacio Layrisse) at the VII LAPEC conference in Buenos Aires, March 2001, the proven Venezuelan reserves were given as 76 billion barrels. Of this amount 52 billion barrels were heavy or extra heavy oil, including 37 billion reserves of extra heavy in the Orinoco Belt (1 in Machete, 15 in Zuata, 6 in Hamaca and 15 in Cerro Negro).

This indicates that Venezuela’s reserves, according to PDVSA, in 2001 were 39 billion barrels excluding the Orinoco Belt.

Other studies (no reference), of current Venezuelan oil fields in 2001, indicate that the reserves in the Western region (Maracaibo area) were about 13 billion barrels and in the eastern region (Maturin area) about 8 billion barrels. This gives a total of about 22 billion barrels. Since about 1 billion barrels have been produced since then, and few major finds are reported since then, it is unlikely that the current reserves exceed 20 billion barrels.

2.-Orinoco Project: In charge of developing the Orinoco Belt. Twenty-seven blocks have been selected for development under this project with the cooperation of selected companies. Because of the strategic location of this hydrocarbon reservoir, it is considered of vital importance in reducing levels of overcrowding in some parts of the country and providing local employment. Services and housing will be developed to guarantee adequate oil exploitation.

3.-Delta-Caribbean Project: Gas will be incorporated to the country energy supply. This project pursues offshore gas development in the Deltana Platform off the coast of eastern Venezuela. Further developments are located in the Paraguaná Peninsula, to the north-west of the country.

4.-Refinement: To increase refinement capacity in Venezuela is one of PDVSA’s strategic goals. Oil Sowing Plan undertakes the creation of new refineries: Cabruta (with capacity for 400,000 extra-heavy crude barrels per day), Batalla de Santa Ines (50,000 barrels) and Caripito (50,000 barrels per day destined to asphalt production). With these three new refineries and the improvement of the existing ones, PDVSA’s processing capacity on Venezuelan soil will be increased to 700, 000 barrels a day.

5.-Infrastructure: More filling centers and pipelines will be set up to guarantee fuel supplies to the whole nation. The agreement for the construction of the Transguajiro gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia has been signed.

6.-Integration: Oil is the resource that will integrate all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela will directly supply volumes of crude and oil products to the Caribbean through Petrocaribe, which also foresees the expansion of refining capacity in that region. Additionally, the Petrosur agreement has been signed leading to advances in the planning of projects in South America. An announcement will be made soon regarding the final location of a refinery that will be built close to Petrobras Company in Brazil.