VENEZUELA

 Its Geography

Venezuela: Gateway to Latin America

Venezuela, strategically situated on the northern part of the South American continent, with coasts on the Atlantic ocean, on the Caribbean sea and boundaries with Brazil to the south, Colombia to the west and Guyana to the east, is a truly gateway to Latin America. Due to its location, the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, has become an important air transport hub in the Western Hemisphere, with daily connections to any part of the Americas as well as Europe.

Venezuela: Its Distinctive Geography

Stretched over 916.000 sq. km, Venezuela is a tropical country that embraces a great variety of natural landscapes, climate and vegetation. Despite its tropical condition, the temperatures vary considerably according to the altitude. Below 800 m., they range form 24ºC to 40ºC; while in zones from 800 to 2000 m., temperatures oscillate from 16ºC to 33ºC. The coldest temperatures are found in Andean mountains, where they can fall bellow freezing over 3.500 meters over sea level.

The country contains several natural regions: the Andean higher mountains zone which runs in a broad arc from the south west to the north east; the lowlands around the Lake of Maracaibo; the vast central plains called "llanos"; the extended Guayana highlands, "tepuyes", in the south and south east, and finally the coast of the Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean sea.

Due to its great variety of landscapes, climate and vegetation cover, among many other characteristics, Venezuela owes many natural beauties, which are very much appreciate all over the world.

Venezuela: Its Outstanding Natural Resources

Nobody doubt  the Venezuelan wealth in natural resources, which represent a real source for its economical growth. The wealthiness of Venezuela, for instance, in oil, gas, iron ore, coal, bauxite, gold, as well as in water, timber wood, soils and many other natural resources is very well known.

Oil and Oil Industry

Venezuela’s extensive resource base includes proven crude oil reserves in 76.000 million barrels, the largest outside the Middle East and the sixth largest in the world. About 58% of the total oil reserve is heavy and extra-heavy crude oil located in the Orinoco Strip, which a large quantity is economically recoverable using existing technology. Combined conventional reserves and the Orinoco Strip, Venezuela has the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world.

In addition, the nation’s natural gas reserves total over 4 trillion cubic meters (14 trillion MT).

Production capacity, excluding that of the Orinoco Strip associations, was placed in 2000 at 3.500.000 barrels per day.

The oil industry is the engine that pulls the entire Venezuelan economy. "Petróleos de Venezuela" (PDVSA) the country’s national company which rules the industry is, in fact, the world’s third largest oil company, having a modern production and refining infrastructure with a first-class professional and technical staff. About 23% of the GDP of the Venezuela stems directly from oil and when it takes into account the chain effects, that figure jumps up to 40%. As one of the founding members of the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and strong producer, Venezuela has ever been one of the leaders of OPEC.

Petroleum and associate products continue to fuel the Venezuelan economy representing about 70% of the country’s exports. Venezuela is the United States fourth supplier of oil, it means 13% of the total oil import of USA. In 1999 sales of crude in the international market reached 2.785.000 per day, representing together with associate products a total of 2.403 million of US$.

Very important is to say that Venezuela opened its door to foreign participations in its petroleum industry since 1992 and today the so called "The Aperture Process "has widened to include all sectors of the Venezuela’s oil business.

One of the most successful results of the Venezuelan oil technology is Orimulsion a liquid coal substitute made from a heavy oil/water mix that studies have shown is cleaner that other fuels now selling in several countries as Italy, China and other.

The country’s reserve in natural gas are extensive. Proven reserves totalled more than 5.000 trillion cubic meters. The present reserves are equivalent to about 25.000 million barrels of oil. Venezuela currently ranked among the top 10 countries with natural gas reserves. Average natural gas daily production is over 180.000 barrels. Exports are increasingly. In 1999 a total of 5.685 billion cubic feet of methane gas was produced.

Iron ore

As said , other mineral resources abound in the Venezuelan territory. It’s the case of iron ore, which the country has huge reserves. Proven reserves of iron ore has been estimated over 2 billion MT, mostly located in Guayana region (Bolivar State). The company charge of tapping Venezuela’s rich iron ore is "Ferrominera del Orinoco", a subsidiary of strong company Corporación Venezolana de Guayana. Venezuela is the world’s eighth largest producer of iron ore, with an output of more than 20 million MT per annum of which 65% is sold to customers in USA, Europe and Japan. Several foreign investors are associated to CVG in the iron ore business sector.

Since 1987 the production of bauxite has steadily grown. By 1995 production achieved a record of 5 million MT, from over 4 billion MT of bauxite reserves the country has in the Guayana region. The Los Pijiguaos, the most important mine has approximately 168 million MT of proven reserves.

Venezuela is South’s America third-largest coal producer, following only Colombia and Brazil and that is the reason why Venezuela’s Coal industry is growing quickly. Almost 20 million MT of coal was produced in 1999. Venezuela has massive potential as coal producer country, with more than 1200 billion MT of proven reserves in addition to the recognized quality of Venezuelan coal in the world markets due to its low sulphur, moisture and high heat yield. Venezuela’s coal fields are mainly located in the states of Zulia, Tachira, falcon and Anzoategui being in Zulia where are the principal fields.

Venezuela has abound proven reserves of gold, located in the Guayana shield, south of the country. Gold reserves of more than 10.000 metric tons are estimated to represent more than 12% of the entire world known gold reserves.

Venezuela has been blessed with abundant running water from its many big rivers. This reason explain why the country has an appreciate hydroelectric power today, and a huge potential for electrical energy as well as for irrigation systems.

Venezuela is, in fact, an overwhelming young country, with about 64% of its population under the age of 25, more than 90% of the country’s 22 million population is literate and nearly 40% Venezuela’s workforce has completed secondary school. The country also boast a well trained pool of professionals and technicians educated inside and overseas. Venezuela today’s population is the result of a multi-ethnic mixture of European, African and native American bloodlines. Above 65% is of mixed native and European migrant people settled in the country particularly after the end of the World War II. Roughly 85% of the population lives in urban areas. Spanish is the Venezuelan official language and English the second one taught at different levels of its education system.