Economy & Business - March 2010 (ISSN 1741-7430)

Venezuela oil reserves: The government announced on 18 March that its proven reserves of oil stood at 211.173bn barrels at the end of 2009. This means that Venezuela's reserves are still the second biggest in the world after Saudi Arabia. The Venezuelan government said that 39.949bn barrels were moved to the 'proven' column in December 2009. On 22 January 2010, the US Geological Survey claimed that Venezuela's Orinoco tar belt could alone hold 513bn barrels of recoverable oil. Venezuela's state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) puts Orinoco tarbet reserves at 288bn barrels. President Hugo Chávez pointed out that both surveys ignore the gas that is found with the heavy oil in the Orinoco tar belt. He claimed that there were 130 trillion cubic feet in the belt.