Tuesday, January 06, 2026

Why You’ve Never Heard of Venezuelan Oil



You’re asked to name oil producing countries.

No problem:  Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, the UAE. 

More?  The US, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Nigeria.

Missing from you list:  Venezuela, which statistically has the most oil in the world.

But guess what?  You can’t pump statistics.  

Most of Venezuela’s oil reserves look much better on paper than they do in the field.

Most Venezuelan oil is tar-like extra-heavy crude, or tar sands.  The very heavy, sulphur-rich, “sour” Venezuelan oil is too thick to pump through a pipe unless it is cut with thinner stuff trucked or piped in from some distance.

In addition, there are very few refineries, anywhere in the world, that can process this stuff, and the cost of doing so is phenomenal.

How bad is it?  

Consider this:  Venezuela mostly runs on imported fuel.

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are moderated, and all zombies, trolls, time wasters, and anonymous cowards will be shot.

If you do not know what that means, click here and read the whole thing.

If you are commenting on a post, be sure to actually read the post.

New information, corrections, and well-researched arguments are always appreciated.

- The Management