📝 🛢 🇻🇪 Reserves ≠ Production
Venezuela already sat on 303 billion barrels, the largest proven reserves on earth, and pumped 1.12 million b/d in July, about 1% of world supply and one third of its 1997 peak.
The 65 billion barrels are 21% of reserves Venezuela had already booked. Booking is not producing. Orinoco crude is extra heavy, under 10 API, and needs upgraders or imported diluent before it can even move; the existing upgraders have run far below nameplate for years.
Guyana, the fastest large development in modern history, took four years from discovery to first oil and about ten to reach 0.9 million b/d, in light offshore crude with one operator and a stable contract. Chevron, the biggest operator actually on the ground in Venezuela, is at 280,000 b/d and targets up to 50% more by end-2028. Roughly 140,000 b/d in two years.
📎 Cristiano Augusto Tofani
August 29, 2026 5.1K 55
