Venezuela’s proven oil reserves reached 211 billion barrels, an increase of 22.5 percent between 2008 and 2009. This positive achievement for Venezuela was registered in the Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC).

According to the report, OPEC experienced a four percent increase in its reserves, reaching 79.6 percent of the world’s existing proven oil reserves, largely due to the rise in Venezuela’s reserves. In fact, amongst the other members of the organization, only Libya and Saudi Arabia showed similar increases, of 4.9 and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The upturn of the proven oil reserves is a result of the policy of full oil sovereignty pursued by the Venezuelan government. In 2006, the first 20 billion of oil barrels were registered, due to the process of quantification and certification of reserves from the Orinoco Oil Belt, specifically in blocs 1,2,3 and 4. With those included, Venezuela reached 99 billion oil barrels in proven reserves.

From 2006 to December 31, 2009, 134 billion barrels of proven oil reserves from the FPO’s Socialista Magna Reserva project have been added, which represents a 168 percent increase in comparison to what the country had in 2005, when it reached 80 billion in oil reserves.

With the programming of the Ministry of People’s Power for Energy and Oil and the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), 2010 is expected to include the incorporation of 105 billion barrels of oil proven reserves. This will turn Venezuela in the country with the highest oil proven reserves of the planet, with 316 billion barrels of oil.