What future for extra heavy oil and bitumen: The Orinoco case

Most assessments of the world's sources of oil tend to consider only the so called "conventional" resources and exclude, among others, the extra heavy oil and bitumen resources (10° API specific gravity). However these resources are increasingly becoming commercially producible, since the early 80's in the Athabasca province of Alberta, Canada and, more recently, in the Orinoco province of Venezuela. The purpose of this paper is to review the present status of the Orinoco bitumen development, and to evaluate the future contribution to worldwide oil reserves offered by these "non conventional" resources of extra heavy oil and bitumen. (Copyright © 1998. World Energy Council)

The link address is: http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/default/tech_papers/17th_congress/3_1_04.asp