Diario las Américas., 1958-08-08
Know thv
NeighborI
"
BY ANTONIO RUIZ

Oll from Lake Maracaibo flows
through pipelines connecting all
wells with gathering stations locat-
ed on shore and called ''flow sta
tons. About 1000 miles of pipe.
lines have been laid at the bot
tom of the lake along with 254 mi
les of submarine cable from power
plants to wells and flow stations.
Crude oil is mixed with gas and
sometimes with water. At the flow
stations; the mixture is separated
by forcing it through Separators
and the oil is kept in storage tanks
from 1000 to 1,500 barrels capa-
city. From these tanks, electric
pumps push it through 8 or 16 inch
pipelines to tanks up to 10000
barrels capacity erected in storage
yards inland.
After the oil is stored, its volume
and grade are determined by re-
representatives. of the Venezuelan
government and the producing com
pany, to assess the royalty due We
nezuela. From the storage yards
oil is again pumped through giant
pipelines or carried in tankers to
refineries.
Gas is used commercially, mainly
as fuel in oil fields, power plants,
and less frequently in neighbor-
ing towns. Gas wasted until a short
time ago. is being re-injected
through a plant built for that pur-
pose.
From the wells drilled in and
around Lake Maracaibo, more than
80 per cent prove to be productive.
Wells are drilled at fixed distances
from each other. according to a
basic pattern of 80 meter squares
drawn on a zone of productive ca
pabilities. This distance is usually
of the whole 800 meters, but wells
may be drilled at shorter distances
from each other, but following the
same pattern, the space is reduced
to 300 and $50 meters.
Lake Maracaibo is the largest lake
in South America. 1t is ia miles
from north to south and 70 miles
from east to west, OF about 5000
square miles, compared in size to
Lake Erie in the United States.
Into it flow five large rivers, the
Catatumbo or EncontradoS, Zulia,
Motatan, Escalante, and Socuy,
which are navigable, and hundreds
of smaller ones. The lake is con-
nected to the Caribbean Sea by
means of fair channels, the widest
being the So-called Maracaibo Sand
Bar, $3.50 feet wide and only
slightly over Is feet deep. The cur
rent here moves at a speed of six
miles an hour. The channel dredg-
ed is 900 feet wide and IS feet
deep, and large ships are able to
enter the lake.
Before the advent of the motor
vehicle the lake was the only out
let for the products of the three
Andean States of Trujillo, Merida,
and Tachira, as well as for the
products of the North Santander
Department of Colombia. 1t still
is the cheapest means of transporta-
ton and the best aid to trade be-
tween the Andean states and the
port of Maracaibo, capital of Zulia
State, on the northwestern shore
of the lake.
The existence of petroleum in
the Lake Maracaibo region was
suspected by the first Spanish con-
quistadores going into the lake in
1899, when they noticed that the
Indians, living on the shore used
the asphalt to caulk their canoes.
During the 18th and 18th centuries
English and French buccaneers
forced their way into the lake just
to get asphalt for caulking their
galleons.
The real petroleum wealth of
the Maracaibo basin became evil
dent in 1917, when the Venezuelan
Oil Concessions, Ltd, obtained oil
in commercial amounts from a
well drilled at La Rosa. Five years
passed by, however, before the eyes
of the world were attracted to
the area.
Spanish version page s..