http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/venez.html

Extra Heavy Crude Oil
Venezuela contains billions of barrels in extra-heavy crude oil and bitumen deposits, most of which are situated in the Orinoco Belt, located in Central Venezuela (estimates range from 100 - 270 billion barrels of recoverable reserves). There are four congressionally approved joint ventures between PdVSA and foreign partners to develop extra-heavy crude oil. Thel four projects which are at different stages of development aim to convert the extra heavy crude from approximately 9° API crude to lighter, sweeter synthetic crude, known as syncrude. These projects normally produce about 450,000 bbl/d of synthetic crude oil (this is expected to increase to 700,000 bbl/d by 2005), much of which is destined for the U.S. Gulf Coast. Syncrude is considered by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as"non-conventional crude oil."

Conoco's Petrozuata produces extra-heavy crude oil from the Zuata region of the Orinoco Belt for transport to the port of Jose on Venezuela's northern coast. Conoco owns and operates two parallel 130-mile pipelines with a total capacity of 200,000 bbl/d to transport production from its wells and others in the region. Heavy crude oil is blended with a lighter crude oil for pipeline transportation to an upgrading facility. The upgrading facility processes the heavy oil into a higher value synthetic crude oil (with an API range between 19° and 25°), and associated byproducts: LPG; sulfur; petroleum coke and heavy gas oil. As production increases, pipeline capacity could be expanded to 500,000 bbl/d. Since 1997, Petrozuata has drilled more than 320 wells in 55,000 acres of the Zuata region, and production is currently 120,000 bbl/d.

ExxonMobil and PdVSA's joint venture at the Cerro Negro extra-heavy oil field started production in 2001. Extra-heavy crude oil from Cerro Negro is diluted with naptha and routed northward via pipeline to an upgrader complex at the port of Jose. The project's upgrader at the Jose complex processes 120,000 bbl/d of extra heavy crude oil into approximately 108,000 bb/d of syncrude and byproducts (sulfur and petroleum coke). Some of the syncrude is then exported to the partners' 180,000-bbl/d Chalmette refinery, located in Louisiana, near New Orleans, where the oil is refined and sold in U.S. markets. Germany's Veba Oil and Gas was also a 16% partner in the upstream component of the project. In May 2002, Petro-Canada acquired Veba. Petro-Canada, however, has not yet acquired ownership of Veba's Venezuelan assets. Exxon announced in May 2003 that it would like to increase production by 10% to 20%.

TotalFinaElf and Statoil are partners with PdVSA in the Sincor project, which began production in February 2002 and has been producing about 140,000-160,000 bbl/d of oil in recent months. Production is expected to plateau at 200,000 bbl/d, with about 35 years of operation. Sincor's extra-heavy crude is upgraded at a facility in the Jose complex, and then marketed for export, similar to the Petrozuata and Cerro Negro projects. Sincor's syncrude output comes in two grades, Zuata Sweet and Zuata Medium.

ConocoPhillip's and ChevronTexaco's joint venture with PdVSA, the Hamaca project, came onstream in November 2001 and is currently producing about 30,000 bbl/d of extra-heavy crude, most of which is diluted and shipped to refineries in the United States. Peak production of about 190,000 bbl/d is expected after an upgrading facility at the Jose complex is completed in early 2004. The crude will be upgraded to about 26° API, and the field is expected to pump for about 34 years.

Tehát a nehézolajat nagyjábol a szaudi készletek méretével teszik egyenéővé.A kitermeléséröl pedig anyit,hogy jelenleg 450 000 hordó/nap,2005-ben 700 000 hordó/napot számítanak.

A nehézolaj azért oly nehéz,mert nagy a sűrűsége és a viszkozitása.Tehát nehezebben jön fel a felszínre,sokkal kisebb a kutak hozama és nehéz szállítani.

Továbbá,ahogy a kanadai bitumenhomok esetében,a feldolgozása földgázt igényel.Vagy nagy mennyiség megy belölle veszendőbe.

Egyszerűbben,ha a földgáztermelés az adott területen egy bizonyos szint alá esik,akkor már nem éri meg a nehézolajnak a nromál olajjá alakítása.
(érdekeség,de ha nincs észak-amerikában földgáz,akkor a bitumenhomok feldolgozási földgázszőkséglete 1/6-rol 1/4-re ugrik,az LNG veszteség miatt).

Tehát ezzel a töbletköltségel csínján kell bánni.Ha ugyannis a töbletköltség töbletenergiaigényt ejelent(márpedig az olajfinomításnál erröl beszélünk),akkor az olaj drágulása egyben hozza a finomítás drágulását is...Korlátozott kitermelőkapacitás esetében(mert itt arol beszélünk,a "nehéz olaj" nag beruházás-kicsi hozam szinonimája) pedig ez a nehézolaj max utépítéshez v. tűzeléshez lesz jó...