HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 29.Apr.2026, Words: 2,300) — Chevron Corporation’s latest asset swap in Venezuela — exiting gas exposure in favor of heavier oil-weighted positions — is more than an internal portfolio reshuffle. From my vantage point, after years covering Venezuela and wider Latin American […]
Tag: EHCO
EAI brief: a renewed desire to exploit Venezuela’s Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt or Faja
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 8.Jan.2026, Words: 399) — Venezuela’s oil sector is again in the spotlight. This time in the immediate aftermath of US military actions aimed at a regime change in Venezuela, and amid an ongoing pivot by Big Oil and other energy companies back […]
Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: upgrading very heavy crudes, Orinoco v heavy Arabian
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts and Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 13.Jun.2025, Words: 2,800) — The increasing global demand for petroleum products has led to greater production of unconventional crude resources such as the extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) and bitumens found in Venezuela, Canada, as […]
Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: the Petrocedeño (formerly Sincor) upgraderÂ
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 12.Jun.2025, Words: 702) — The Sincor upgrader was built in an area of over 200 hectares with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (b/d) of extra heavy crude oil (EHCO) of an average density of 8.3° […]
![Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: production and export grades, upgraded API properties [table]](https://energy-analytics-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/faja-pad-venezuela-energy-analytics-institute-scaled.jpg)
Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: production and export grades, upgraded API properties [table]
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Jun.2025, Words: 560) — Venezuela, despite ongoing US sanctions meant to halt the country’s economic growth with an ultimate aim on producing a regime change, continues to produce and export a variety of crude oil grades with gravities […]
Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: opportunity loss of 2.1 MMb/d from 6 new proposed upgraders
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 9.Jun.2025, Words: 1,600) — Proposals for 6 new joint ventures (JVs) in Venezuela’s Orinoco heavy oil belt, or Faja, aimed to increase the South American country’s heavy and extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) production capacity by an additional 2,090,000 […]
Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: 4 original upgraders Sincor, Petrozuata, Cerro Negro and Hamaca
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 8.Jun.2025, Words: 1,143) — Venezuela is blessed with numerous heavy-oil reservoirs, but none compares to the largest accumulation of heavy and ultra heavy oil in the world – the 55,000 km2 (21,240 sq. mile) Orinoco heavy oil belt, also […]
Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: a brief history of heavy oil in Venezuela
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 6.Jun.2025, Words: 585) — In 1914, Venezuela’s first important heavy oil field, Mene Grande, was discovered. Initial production from the shallow sands located at 550ft averaged 264 barrels per day (b/d) per well of oil with API gravity down […]
FACT BOX: Why it’s necessary to upgrade Venezuela’s heavy oils
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 29.Apr.2022, Words: 108) — The purpose for upgrading Venezuela’s heavy and extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) is to achieve substantial changes in values that determine the quality of the oil. Such changes include: increasing the API value; reducing viscosity; reducing the content […]
Venezuela Reshifts Oil Output
(Reuters, Marianna Parraga and Luc Cohen, 28.Jun.2019) — Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA is revamping one of its major processing operations geared to supplying U.S. buyers to produce instead a crude grade favored by Asian refiners, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. Sweeping U.S. sanctions on the government of […]
Venezuela’s Energy Sectors Remain Attractive, Unattractive
(Energy Analytics Institute, 28.May.2018) — Venezuela’s upstream, downstream and midstream sectors remain attractive, yet unattractive to investors. Why the contradiction? The three sectors remain highly attractive due to the fact that Venezuela — the country with the world’s largest crude oil reserve base and the eighth largest natural gas reserve […]