PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Jun.2025, Words: 1,950) — Sincor, since renamed Petrocedeño, was envisioned and all about the large-scale extraction and valorization of the extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) in Venezuela’s Orinoco heavy oil belt or Faja, home to an estimated 1,360 billion barrels or bn bbls of original oil in place (OOIP). It is the largest such accumulation of heavy and EHCO in the world.
Valorization of the EHCO became the major focus of Venezuela’s energy development program in the early 2000s under the leadership of then president Hugo Chávez, who ruled the South American country from 1999 until his death in 2013 due to cancer.
