Venezuela's Oil
Venezuela's oil is primarily heavy, extra-heavy, and sour crude, meaning it's thick, dense, and has a high sulfur content, especially from the Orinoco Oil Belt, requiring specialized, costly refining, and often needs blending with lighter oils to flow. This makes it more challenging and expensive to extract and process than lighter crudes, though its sheer volume gives Venezuela the world's largest proven reserves.
Key Characteristics:
Heavy & Extra-Heavy: It's thick, viscous, and sticky, similar to molasses, rather than flowing easily like lighter oils.
Sour: It contains a high percentage of sulfur, making it more corrosive and difficult to refine into gasoline and diesel.
Location: The majority of these reserves are found in the Orinoco Oil Belt (Faja).
Challenges:
Processing: Needs special, complex refineries (like those on the U.S. Gulf Coast) or upgrading to handle its density and sulfur.
Transportation: Must be diluted with lighter petroleum derivatives to move through pipelines.
Environmental Impact: Produces more greenhouse gases during extraction and refining.
The world has too much oil. Will companies want Venezuela's?
Jan 6, 2026 — Heavy, viscous crude. Another variable in that math problem: The type of crude oil that is abundant in Venezuela is kind of gnarly. "It is one of the...
NPR
US sanctions on Venezuelan oil could cut the output of refineries at home
Feb 19, 2019 — Venezuela's crude is heavy and sour, which means it's very dense and contains a high percentage of sulfur. Only specialized refineries can handle th...
The Conversation
Venezuela - The Strauss Center
Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and one of the world's top oil producers. It holds some of the largest proven reserves of petroleum and natural gas, alth...
The Strauss Center
Much of Venezuela's oil, especially from the Orinoco ...
Jan 2, 2026 — Much of Venezuela's oil, especially from the Orinoco Belt, is very heavy crude that is high in sulfur and metals and has a low API gravity, which mak...
Facebook·History Cool Kids
What happens to the planet if Trump gets his hands ... - CNN
Jan 6, 2026 — The oil's high sulfur content also makes it harder and more expensive to refine into useful products like gasoline and diesel. It requires specialize...
CNN
Trump Claims Venezuela Will Send Oil to U.S. - The New York Times
Jan 5, 2026 — What type of oil does Venezuela produce? A lot of Venezuela's oil is heavy, which means it is dense and viscous compared with the lighter oil produce...
The New York Times
Venezuela's New Focus on Heavy Oil | Rigzone
Venezuela has a heavy oil belt called the Faja that runs east to west across the country. The Faja contains more than one trillion barrels of oil. The crude fro...
Rigzone
How Venezuela’s Oil Reserves Compare to the Rest of the World
Jan 5, 2026 — Four Countries Dominate Global Oil Reserves ... Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves (about 303 billion barrels), but U.S. sanctions...
Visual Capitalist
Key Characteristics:
Heavy & Extra-Heavy: It's thick, viscous, and sticky, similar to molasses, rather than flowing easily like lighter oils.
Sour: It contains a high percentage of sulfur, making it more corrosive and difficult to refine into gasoline and diesel.
Location: The majority of these reserves are found in the Orinoco Oil Belt (Faja).
Challenges:
Processing: Needs special, complex refineries (like those on the U.S. Gulf Coast) or upgrading to handle its density and sulfur.
Transportation: Must be diluted with lighter petroleum derivatives to move through pipelines.
Environmental Impact: Produces more greenhouse gases during extraction and refining.
The world has too much oil. Will companies want Venezuela's?
Jan 6, 2026 — Heavy, viscous crude. Another variable in that math problem: The type of crude oil that is abundant in Venezuela is kind of gnarly. "It is one of the...
NPR
US sanctions on Venezuelan oil could cut the output of refineries at home
Feb 19, 2019 — Venezuela's crude is heavy and sour, which means it's very dense and contains a high percentage of sulfur. Only specialized refineries can handle th...
The Conversation
Venezuela - The Strauss Center
Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and one of the world's top oil producers. It holds some of the largest proven reserves of petroleum and natural gas, alth...
The Strauss Center
Much of Venezuela's oil, especially from the Orinoco ...
Jan 2, 2026 — Much of Venezuela's oil, especially from the Orinoco Belt, is very heavy crude that is high in sulfur and metals and has a low API gravity, which mak...
Facebook·History Cool Kids
What happens to the planet if Trump gets his hands ... - CNN
Jan 6, 2026 — The oil's high sulfur content also makes it harder and more expensive to refine into useful products like gasoline and diesel. It requires specialize...
CNN
Trump Claims Venezuela Will Send Oil to U.S. - The New York Times
Jan 5, 2026 — What type of oil does Venezuela produce? A lot of Venezuela's oil is heavy, which means it is dense and viscous compared with the lighter oil produce...
The New York Times
Venezuela's New Focus on Heavy Oil | Rigzone
Venezuela has a heavy oil belt called the Faja that runs east to west across the country. The Faja contains more than one trillion barrels of oil. The crude fro...
Rigzone
How Venezuela’s Oil Reserves Compare to the Rest of the World
Jan 5, 2026 — Four Countries Dominate Global Oil Reserves ... Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves (about 303 billion barrels), but U.S. sanctions...
Visual Capitalist
