Venezuelan oil reserves up 152.5 billion barrels

The certified oil reserves of Venezuela climbed to 152.5 billion barrels with the addition of 10.2 billion barrels in recent days, while estimated reserves total some 313 billion barrels, said on Wednesday the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. 'With the addition of 10.2 billion barrels from the Iguana Zuata oilfield, Junín 2 Block, in the municipality of Santa María de Ipire, (central) Guárico state, Venezuela is ranked as the country with the world's second largest certified oil reserves for now,' said the Ministry in a press release. The statement stressed that 'in parallel, Venezuela added 826.5 billion cubic feet of gas,' EFE reported. International certification of reserves has been under way since 2006 in the Orinoco Oil Belt (located in central and eastern Venezuela). It is carried out by some 30 oil companies from various countries world.