page_title: Oil sands
section_title: Orinoco
hierarchical_section_title: Oil sands / Geology / Major deposits / Venezuela / Orinoco
context_page_description: Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or more technically bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen.
  Natural bitumen deposits are reported in many countries, but in particular are found in extremely large quantities in Canada. Other large reserves are located in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Venezuela. The estimated worldwide deposits of oil are more than 2 trillion barrels; the estimates include deposits that have not been discovered. Proven reserves of bitumen contain approximately 100 billion barrels, and total natural bitumen reserves are estimated at 249.67 Gbbl worldwide, of which 176.8 Gbbl, or 70.8%, are in Alberta, Canada.
  The crude bitumen contained in the Canadian oil sands is described by the National Energy Board of Canada as "a highly viscous mixture of hydrocarbons heavier than pentanes which, in its natural state, is not usually recoverable at a commercial rate through a well because it is too thick to flow."
context_section_description: The Orinoco Belt is a territory in the southern strip of the eastern Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela which overlies one of the world's largest deposits of petroleum. The Orinoco Belt follows the line of the river. It is approximately 600 kilometres (370 mi) from east to west, and 70 kilometres (43 mi) from north to south, with an area about 55,314 square kilometres (21,357 sq mi).
  The oil sands consist of large deposits of extra heavy crude. Venezuela's heavy oil deposits of about 1,200 Gbbl (190×10⁹ m³) of oil in place are estimated to approximately equal the world's reserves of lighter oil. Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), Venezuela's national oil company, has estimated that the producible reserves of the Orinoco Belt are up to 235 Gbbl (37.4×10⁹ m³) which would make it the largest petroleum reserve in the world.
  In 2009, the US Geological Survey (USGS) increased its estimates of the reserves to 513 Gbbl (81.6×10⁹ m³) of oil which is "technically recoverable (producible using currently available technology and industry practices)." No estimate of how much of the oil is economically recoverable was made.
caption: Panorama of the Orinoco River
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