Venezuela’s proven crude oil reserves have increased by 30 percent, the country’s oil minister told a meeting of South American energy ministers.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Venezuela now has 130 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. After Canada’s massive reserves of harder-to-process oil sands, that is the biggest reserve outside the Middle East.
Ramirez said Venezuela [...]

Venezuela moved closer to nationalizing its oil-rich Orinoco River basin, after four foreign oil companies signed deals giving Venezuela the lion’s share of the profits and two US companies pulled out altogether.
“ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are ending their participation in the exploration ventures,” Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Tuesday at the signing ceremony with [...]

Oil giants ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. are set to withdraw from their joint venture projects in Venezuela’s Orinoco basin.
The two companies refused to sign deals Tuesday that would see the Venezuelan government taking majority stakes in their Orinoco projects.
Four other oil majors, U.S.-based Chevron Corp.; Britain’s BP Plc; France’s Total SA; and Norway’s Statoil [...]

Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA has started drilling after taking over operations of US oil major ConocoPhillips’ (NYSE:COP) Corocoro project, according to a PDVSA statement.
Conoco so far has not accepted government terms for continuing in PDVSA-dominated joint venture deals in the South American country.
PDVSA did not specify whether it was referring to Corocoro Este or [...]

Venezuelan lawmakers said Monday they would give President Hugo Chavez special powers to make changes to the country’s oil, gas and electricity industries by presidential decree.
National Assembly President Cilia Flores said lawmakers loyal to Chavez would approve an “enabling law” allowing the leader to pass measures by decree for 18 months in the “energy sphere” [...]

Honduras will take temporary control of foreign-owned oil storage terminals as part of a government import program meant to drive down fuel prices, President Manuel Zelaya said late on Saturday.
Zelaya ordered the move after failing to reach a deal with big oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron , as well as local company [...]

Scientists are reporting an advance toward understanding and possibly combating a natural process that destroys billions of dollars worth of subsurface petroleum. Called biodegradation, it occurs as bacteria and other microbes metabolize, or feed on, organic compounds present in crude oil.
The microbes remove the most valuable hydrocarbon compounds and change the most valuable lighter crude [...]

Scientists are reporting an advance toward understanding and possibly combating a natural process that destroys billions of dollars worth of subsurface petroleum. Called biodegradation, it occurs as bacteria and other microbes metabolize, or feed on, organic compounds present in crude oil.
The microbes remove the most valuable hydrocarbon compounds and change the most valuable lighter [...]