Venezuela Oil Reserves: How Much Oil Does It Have?
Venezuela has 303.7 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, according to OPEC’s 2026 Annual Statistical Bulletin (end-2025 data). That is the largest of any country, ahead of Saudi Arabia (267.2 billion) and Iran (208.6 billion), and 19.3% of the world’s total. Most of it is extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt, which is expensive to produce. That is why Venezuela pumps far less than its reserves would suggest.
Which countries have the most oil?
Proven crude reserves at end-2025, per OPEC (million barrels):
| Rank | Country | Reserves | Share of world |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Venezuela | 303,701 | 19.3% |
| 2 | Saudi Arabia | 267,200 | 17.0% |
| 3 | Iran | 208,600 | 13.3% |
| 4 | Iraq | 140,000 | 8.9% |
| 5 | United Arab Emirates | 120,000 | 7.6% |
| 6 | Kuwait | 101,500 | 6.5% |
| 7 | Russia | 80,000 | 5.1% |
| 8 | Libya | 48,363 | 3.1% |
| 9 | United States | 41,909 | 2.7% |
| — | World | 1,572,459 | 100% |
Venezuela’s number barely moves: 303.5 billion in 2021, 303.2 billion in 2024 and 303.7 billion in 2025, a gain of 480 million barrels last year.
Where is Venezuela’s oil?
- The Orinoco Belt. It covers about 55,314 km² (21,357 sq mi) in Guárico state and the south of Anzoátegui, Monagas and Delta Amacuro, split into four blocks: Boyacá, Junín, Ayacucho and Carabobo (more on the Orinoco Belt). The EIA put its proven reserves at 220.5 billion barrels, almost three-quarters of the national total. A 2009 USGS study estimated the Belt’s mean recoverable resources at 513 billion barrels — but “recoverable” there does not mean profitable.
- The Maracaibo basin (Zulia state). Per the EIA, it is the most prolific producing area, with slightly less than half of national output, but its fields are mature and need heavy investment just to hold steady.
Why doesn’t all that oil make Venezuela rich?
- The crude is extra-heavy, closer to Canada’s oil sands than to Saudi crude. It has to be blended with diluent or light oil, or upgraded into synthetic crude, before it can move through a pipeline. All of that takes capital.
- Proven reserves are not the same as profitable oil. Around 2005 Venezuela reported roughly 77 to 80 billion barrels. Between 2005 and 2011 that number nearly quadrupled as PDVSA reclassified large parts of the Orinoco from “resources” to “proven reserves” during a period of high prices. Rystad Energy puts Venezuela’s economically recoverable oil at about 29 billion barrels, roughly a tenth of the official figure.
- Output is small. Venezuela produced 1.08 million barrels a day in 2025, 1.4% of world crude, per OPEC. At that pace its proven reserves would last more than 700 years (monthly production figures).
Who is producing Venezuela’s oil now?
- PDVSA, the state oil company, on its own and through joint ventures with foreign partners.
- Chevron, which said on September 2, 2026, that it will invest more than $7 billion over five years to double its Venezuelan output to about 600,000 b/d, with new acreage in the Orinoco Belt.
- North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP). According to the White House (August 31, 2026), it received concessions on 17 fields holding about 65 billion barrels, a fifth of proven reserves. The Pentagon is to take a 35% stake in the company.
What is not known
- How much oil is truly economic. OPEC does not break proven reserves down by cost, and the 29 billion figure is a private estimate from Rystad Energy.
- Which fields NABEP holds and on what fiscal terms. The contracts have not been published.
For the country’s other natural resources, see our guide to Venezuela’s minerals and why oil matters so much to Venezuela’s economy.