PALAST: Chavez tells BBC Venezuela has more oil than Saudi

[yurbud]

I love this Chavez guy, but this paints a bigger bull's eye on his forehead.

Apparently, Venezuela has a lot of heavy oil that hasn't been figured into their reserves because it used to be to expensive to refine.

But with oil consistently above $50 a barrel, they can be refined and that means Venezuela has more than the rest of the planet.

This will get interesting.

Someone needs to tell me how this affects the slope of peak oil--maybe we will have a longer plateau.

http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=485&row=0

THE NEW WORLD OIL ORDER:
HUGO CHAVEZ TELLS BBC, WE HAVE MORE OIL THAN SAUDI ARABIA
Greg Palast Reporting for BBC Newsnight TV
Monday, April 3, 2006


Chavez told Newsnight "we're trying to find an equilibrium. The price of oil could remain at the low level of $50. That's a fair price it's not a high price". Hugo Chavez will have added clout at this OPEC meeting.

US Department of Energy analyses seen by Newsnight show that at $50 a barrel Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia - will have the biggest oil reserves in OPEC. Venezuela has vast deposits of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco. Traditionally these have not been counted because at $20 a barrel they were too expensive to exploit - but at $50 a barrel melting them into liquid petroleum becomes extremely profitable.

The US DoE report shows that at today's prices Venezuela's oil reserves are bigger than those of the entire Middle East including Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Iran and Iraq. The US DoE also identifies Canada as another future oil superpower. Venezuela's deposits alone could extend the oil age for another 100 years.

The US DoE estimates that Chavez controls 1.3 trillion barrels of oil - more than the entire declared oil reserves of the rest of the planet. Hugo Chavez told Newsnight's Greg Palast that "Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. In the future Venezuela won't have any more oil - but that's in the 22nd century. Venezuela has oil for 200 years." Chavez will ask the OPEC meeting in June to formally accept that Venezuela's reserves are now bigger than Saudi Arabia's.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

1. Onward to Ira...err, a...Venezuela!

:patriot:

[CanuckAmok]

2. Cool, so how long until Venezuela has "WMDs" that need to be defused?

I wonder.

[yurbud]

11. I think if they have a sharpened stick the Bushies will say its dangerous

[Trevelyan]

3. HANDS OFF IRAN....AND VENEZUELA -- There have been petitions for months:

URGENT ALERT ON BEHALF OF BOLIVARIAN VENEZUELA!
Demand U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!

http://www.iacenter.org/venezcampaign.shtml

"No War In Iran Petition

To: United Nations General Assembly

We, the undersigned, urge you, the members and officers of the United Nations General Assembly, to pass a resolution against and to use all of your diplomatic and political powers to prevent an attack on the sovereign nation of Iran by the United States of America and/or her allies.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned
http://www.petitiononline.com/NWinIran/petition.html

[Selatius]

4. I fear Chavez is going to be destroyed by pro-corporate interests.

Chavez lives in the shadow of the US Empire. There's no way the people who hold power in the US would tolerate a puny, poor nation dictating the terms of service to the US.

How much profit can 1.3 trillion barrels of oil generate if it is in the hands of for-profit corporations?

[depakid]

5. Disappointed with Greg Palast

It wouldn't have been too hard to put in a couple of lines as to why Chavez's claims are, shall we say "overstated." It doesn't help his credibility when he leaves out glaring "details" like that.

[yurbud]

12. did you read the snip on the DOE?

[depakid]

15. That's traditional econ analysis

and doesn't look at energy flows.

Low quality hydrocarbons (like the bitumen in the Orinoco oil belt) are problematic- because of the energy needed to extract and refine them. The EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) may one day be) somewhere around 2 to 3. That means that it takes tons of energy to get only a little more back. The EROEI for most conventional oil sources- even deep water- is much more than that that your looking at numbers in the teens.

It also takes a long time to develop whatever amounts of the resource you can recover. 20% is often the rough number tossed around. You don't just pump this asphalt like stuff out of the ground. It's not liquid oil.

Bottom line, when you look at the net energy replacement alongside the tremendous scale and increasing demand and depletion rates for conventional oil, the math does not look good- and so Chavez's statements here are puffing (at best) and more likely, just downright false.

[yurbud]

19. when you factor the cost of Persian Gulf oil do you take

military expenditures into account?

Also, although it would be costly, it might be used because oil companies could continue to obstruct non-petroleum replacements, and there is the existing infrastructure to deliver the existing product.

As for energy in, if you used renewables like wind, hydro or solar, wouldn't that be moot?

[cliss]

6. As far as Peak Oil; the fact that Chavez

is now King Midas won't really change things very much. There's an article somewhere that says that Canada has enormous deposits of oil-tar-sands. This is oil, but it looks like Play-Doh. It's thick, and it's not going to be easy to refine it.

Venezuela is in the same boat. They have the world's #1 supply of "sour" crude, but their stuff has a lot of sulfur, to boot.

It's not as wonderful as it sounds.

What Chavez isn't telling us is that refining this stuff is a nightmare. Yes, he'll get his oil, but it will create tons and tons of waste, sludge, crap that will poison his beautiful Venezuela.

It's still not going to change the fact that the world runs on LIGHT, SWEET crude. That's the easy, good stuff that they have in Saudi Arabia. The world has gotten all too used to the good stuff. Nothing is going to change until the world cuts back on its use of ALL oil, and not just the easy pickins.

Think of it this way: You've got terminal cancer. Your time is up. You can do certain things to prolong your life maybe 6 months, but the end will come just the same. The world MUST end its use of hydrocarbons.

[yurbud]

14. I agree about need to end oil use--this just clarifies how soon

and whether it will be cold turkey.

[CanuckAmok]

20. The cost of hard-refining tar sands is relative.

The Tar Sands project in Alberta has been stalled for 20 years, because of the refining costs.

But once "good" crude begins to really disappear, Tar Sand crude will become a viable alternative. And no doubt, the extra costs will be passed on to the consumer. $7.50 a gallon, anyone?

It's not necessary to say "the world must stop using hydrocarbons", because we will, when they run out, and not a moment before. What is interesting is how we will resolve to use the last of them. I'm intruiged by BioDiesel, which requires only 5%-20% of refined crude oil compared to regular diesel or gasoline. For argument's sake, say all vehicles in the world switch to BioDiesel... we would increase the lifespan of the remaining crude oil from 30 years to over 200 years. Of course, with present technology, BioDiesel isn't suitable for aircraft or other specialty vehicles, so that use of refined crude would have to be taken into account.

[yurbud]

22. exactly! I don't know why more people don't see this. Also...

we don't have to grow all the necessary crops ourselves. Right now, we dump our crop surpluses on the third world, making it difficult for their farmers to turn a profit.

If they could grow fuel crops, it would be good for them and us.

[lindisfarne]

7. You've got to wonder what exactly Chavez's motivation in saying this was.

Even if it is true (impossible to verify although specialists can probably evaluate the likelihood of such a claim), wouldn't Venezuela benefit from the higher prices caused by the belief that there is less oil available?

[TreasonousBastard]

8. At 50 bucks a barrel...

Canada's oil shale could also be profitable. And those "empty" wells all over the country giving up two or three barrels a day are worth working.

Refining that heavy oil isn't the big problem-- it's the need to heat it in the ground so it can be pumped out. Not the biggest of deals, just adds to the cost of recovery. Accesibility of the oilfields is another problem.

A lot of potential oil hasn't been exploited because no one knew if the high prices would hold. And, if a new supply popped up the prices could drop, wiping out the investment.

I'm kinda fearing for Chavez-- he's been buying up support all over South America with Venezuelan oil money. Not so different from past Saudi influence in Arab affairs, except that he's supporting the leftists and building up some serious hatred amongst the Old Guard down there who have always assumed their right to rule.

Interesting times ahead.

[bananas]

10. That's mentioned in the video report

Palast mentions that Canada will also have huge reserves at $50/barrel.
The video is really well done, about 11 minutes long, worth watching.
It's linked from the article.

"You can watch the BBC Newsnight Report here.
(The report will remain viewable for 24 hours)."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/nb_rm_fs.stm?nbram=1&news=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&nol_storyid=4873580

[TreasonousBastard]

17. Stuck on dialup so I don't do video, but...

I'll take your word for it.

[bananas]

21. It streams at dialup speed by default 34kbps

[depakid]

16. Not the biggest of deals?

OK, so where's the energy going to come from?

Natural gas? Other petroleum? Out of thin air?

Sounds to me like you're arguing the substitability fallacy.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Nope, just my admittedly...

limited knowledge of the drilling business.

Tertiary recovery already involves injecting steam into the wells to get the last recoverable drops out. It doesn't get it all, but it's a common technique. Same thing for "melting" heavy oil, gas-freeing tankers, and even melting the heavy crude in tankers. The stuff is like tar or asphalt.

Yes, it takes energy to get the stuff out of the ground and transport it, and some of that energy comes from boiloff when the wells start pumping so the crude in there is not entirely going to the refineries.

But, after all is done, it's still an increase in supply, just not the "trillions" advertised.

[HereSince1628]

9. Maybe this is correct, but I have the feeling Chavez is blazing a trail

trail in search of greatness. I hope he is aware that the blade of grass that sticks up gets mowed down.

[yurbud]

13. we already know what he has. Chavez has probably figured out

what taking a more accomodationist route would get him--a bullet in the head if he didn't do exactly as he was told.

Some leaders can't sleep at night if they screw their own people.

I wish we had some like him here instead of those who see public office as a way of helping their investment portfolio.