Venezuela says it has the world's largest reserves of crude oil. Making it viable is a whole other problem.

Despite exporting little than 1% of the world's proviso of oil, Venezuela has been a cardinal focal constituent successful the vigor marketplace for decades.

Why? Because the state claims to person the largest reserves of crude lipid successful the world.

According to figures wide cited passim the media and the lipid manufacture itself, Venezuela is sitting connected astir 300 cardinal barrels' worthy of "proved" oil, meaning barrels that have, successful theory, been confirmed arsenic commercially viable by conclusive investigating oregon existent production.

This compares with Saudi Arabia's proved reserve estimates of astir 260 cardinal to 270 cardinal barrels and the overmuch much meager 45 cardinal barrels successful the US.

This is simply a self-reported figure, however, and is published — but not verified — by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, oregon OPEC, of which Venezuela is simply a founding member. Holistic and conclusive evaluations by autarkic experts person ne'er been conducted.

And up until 2007, Venezuela's self-reported proved reserves sat astatine astir 100 cardinal barrels, according to information reported by OPEC. By 2013, that fig was updated aft a reclassification of fields controlled by the country's state-run Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). Venezuelan accumulation was astir level during the aforesaid period.

"Venezuela has not audited the reserves, lone the resources successful place," said Francisco Monaldi, manager of the Latin American Energy Institute astatine Rice University's Baker Institute, referring to the full magnitude of hydrocarbons successful the ground, not their accumulation viability.

In reality, Monaldi said successful a LinkedIn post, Venezuela's betterment complaint for its lipid is little than fractional of what the state claims, truthful "a tenable and blimpish estimation of RESERVES would beryllium person to 100-110 cardinal barrels."

Venezuela, erstwhile the strongest oil-producing federation successful the satellite by volume, has seen its manufacture crumble nether the enactment of Hugo Chavez and Maduro, particularly pursuing Chavez's full nationalization of the manufacture nether PDVSA.

Corruption, mismanagement, encephalon drain, and a deficiency of repair and upkeep enactment connected captious infrastructure, including passim Venezuela's flagship Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt, person made operating without important concern astir impossible, according to respective analysts.

In the fields on the occidental borderline of the country, "infrastructure constraints and a deficiency of energy availability airs important hurdles," according to vigor analysts astatine Jefferies.