Why boosting production of Venezuela’s ‘very dense & sloppy’ oil could harm environment

Bogota: Environmental experts are warning that the US push to revamp and boost Venezuela’s vast oil reserves could worsen decades of ecological damage and increase planet-warming pollution in a country already struggling with the legacy of a long-declining petroleum industry.

The warnings come as Washington has intensified pressure on Venezuela following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro last weekend. Since then, the United States has moved to assert control over

Venezuelan oil exports, the country’s main source of revenue, seizing tankers it says were transporting crude in violation of US sanctions and signalling plans to redirect Venezuelan oil to global markets under US oversight.

The Trump administration has said it plans to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude worldwide, though it has not specified a time frame.

Proceeds would be held in US-controlled accounts, which the administration says would benefit both Venezuelans and Americans.

Industry analysts caution that significantly expanding Venezuelan oil production would require years of investment and tens of billions of dollars to repair decaying infrastructure.

“You’ve got storage facilities literally sinking into the ground, broken wellheads and degraded infrastructure across the board,” said Paasha

Mahdavi, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies energy governance and political economy.

Venezuela’s oil reserves are thought to be the largest in the world at an estimated 300 billion barrels.

The country, which stretches from the Caribbean coast into the northern Andes, is already highly exposed to oil pollution and ranks among tropical countries with

the fastest deforestation rates, according to Global Forest Watch, an online monitoring platform hosted by the World Resources Institute. It produces heavy crude that emits significantly more pollution than most other forms of oil.

That’s because it takes more energy to extract and refine, which often involves burning natural gas, mostly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that heats the planet.

Reviving Venezuela’s oil industry would deepen environmental damage in a country already plagued by spills, gas leaks and

dilapidated infrastructure, with higher output expected to boost climate emissions and increase spill risks in fragile ecosystems, several experts

warned.

The Venezuelan Political Ecology Observatory, an environmental watchdog, documented nearly 200 oil spills from 2016 to 2021 that were largely unreported by authorities.

Satellite data from Global Forest Watch, an online forest monitoring platform hosted by the World Resources Institute, show Venezuela has lost roughly 2.6 million

hectares of tree cover over the past two decades, largely driven by agriculture, mining and fires, though oil activity has contributed to forest loss in some producing regions.agencies