According to estimates 90% of Venezuela oil is heavy crude basically Asphalt hard to refine and hard extract. I am writing an PowerPoint on the formation of hydrocarbons. If it’s true only about 100 billion barrels of Venezuela oil is economically recoverable. Saudi makes money even when oil hit $20 per barrel while Venezuela goes broke if oil goes below $50 per barrel.
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Posted by kaydnh
5 Comments
Saudi makes money even at 15 dollars a bbl. But they need 90 dollar oil to balance their budget.
In other bitumen basins like the Athabasca, my understanding is its less a matter of bacteria than of geologic exposure.
Imagine a saturated oil reservoir, particularly one not buried to depths temperatures that might ‘cook’ all the hydrocarbons down to smaller molecules. At some point in geological time a river erodes down to scurry across its surface (over hundreds of thousands of years). The more volatile components mainly escape to the biosphere, and leave behind the waxy/asphaulty large molecules. Then there’s some marine transgression or a lake, and the silt lays down less penetrable shale beds above, and the succession of geologic layers common in sedimentary basins.
I think it’s more so Saudi Arabia is particularly gifted in the natural resource department. As for Venezuela, the country was one of the richest emerging economies during Chavez era due to the oil wealth. I doubt their oil quality is that bad.
The temperature history of the source also plays into the geochemistry. I suggest you do more research on oil formation.
Earth says: “Let’s sous vide” the oil.