Chavez said Tuesday night that officials certified vast
deposits of heavy crude in the Orinoco River basin in December, and that
"we have reached 253 billion" barrels of oil.
Last May, the Venezuelan government said its proven
reserves stood at 172 billion barrels.
Gustavo Coronel, an energy consultant and former
executive of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said such a quick
increase is technically impossible.
"What the Venezuelan government is doing is imposing
an arbitrary, higher recovery factor to the oil that is assumed to be in
place," Coronel said. He said that for oil deposits to count as proven
reserves they must be recoverable within a reasonable period of time, and that
much of the heavy crude in the Orinoco region is not.
Chavez claimed in a televised speech that it is
"scientifically proven we're now in the first place in the world in oil
reserves." Coronel disputed that.
"There is nothing scientific about this arbitrary
upgrading of the recovery factor," Coronel said. "The way the Chavez
government is handling this issue is political, not technical, designed to
increase the geopolitical clout of his regime."
