VENEZUELAN EXPERIENCE AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN HEAVY OIL EXPLOITATION*

Abstract

SummaryFor many years, very large heavy oil deposits have been known to exist in Venezuela, Canada and several other countries. Due to economical and technological factors, however, these deposits have not been significantly developed. Heavy oils represent only four per cent of current world crude oil output, but this low share should increase substantially in the future as higher world oil prices and a reduced availability of light and medium crudes have made the development of heavy crudes competitive, and have also created a growing demand for them.Modest technological advances in the recovery and upgrading of heavy oils can lead to substantial economic benefits. Available technology, such as steam injection, has been successfully applied to raise the recovery of heavy crude oil reserves. But more research is required to further increase the efficiency of these recovery methods and of the accompanying thermal energy generation. Also, more research is needed to make economic the upgrading of heavy crude oil with high metals content, by hydrogen addition, since this route yields a higher production of light premium syncrude than the proven carbon rejection processes.The use of an integrated production‐upgrading complex for exploiting heavy oil can increase the overall economics of heavy oil exploitation, since it can lead to a balanced energy supply‐demand system, increasing liquid production and using as fuel, for steam and electricity production, the low value by‐product of the upgrading plant.Both Venezuela and Canada are developing firm plans to raise the production rates of heavy crudes. In Venezuela, their output averaged 725,000 barrels per day in 1979, and programmes are in progress to increase production capacity to 1.3 million b/d by 1985 and to 1.7 mb/d by the end of the century.