Since the first oil well was ever drilled, the commodity has continuously emerged as an important part of our life. We now depend on it for our all day to day basic needs. It is used as fuel for our transport. Other than that, fuel is also used to generate electricity to light our homes, run factories and machines, used as a raw material to produce fertilizer to increase food production and above all, it is used to produce plastic which is used in wide range of things in our day to day life. Since the emergence of oil industry in mid-nineteenth century, it has helped vastly in the industrial revolution and the growth of mankind in various aspects. But at the same time, this important energy source has also triggered wars, reshaped geo-politics...with countries competing to control it.
While no country in the world has one fourth of the world’s oil reserves, but still, the country with the world’s largest oil reserve, Venezuela, has one fifth of the world’s oil reserve. Venezuela surpassed Saudi Arabia last year to become the holder of the largest oil reserves in the world. However, annual oil production of the OPEC supplier is considerably less than the Kingdom. The country’s proven oil reserve as of January 2013 stood at 297.57 billion barrels accounting for about one fifth of the world’s total proven oil reserve. The country produced 2.8million barrels of crude oil per day in 2012 with 149 active rigs. Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is in charge of the exploration and production of oil resources in the country.
Oil reserves in Venezuela are mainly concentrated in the Maracaibo Basin, a sedimentary basin in the north-western part of the country possessing more than 40 billion barrels of oil reserves, and the Orinoco Belt in central Venezuela which is estimated to contain 235 billion barrels of extra heavy crude oil.
Other countries with the large oil reserves in the world, ruling the oil kingdom are: Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Libya & Nigeria.
