CARACAS, Venezuela—For over a century, energy-rich Venezuela has benefited economically, mainly from producing crude oil. But amid a race to net zero emissions by mid-century, it must now advance natural gas and preferably renewable developments.
Venezuela is blessed with oil, gas and numerous mineral resources such as gold to steel. Due to the country’s geographic location in the northern region of South America coupled with its long Caribbean coastline, it’s in the perfect location to benefit from renewable resources, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) foundation Venezuela director Katharina Wegner told Hart Energy July 21 during an interview in Caracas.
But Venezuela needs to move forward with future renewable activities in a sustainable manner in order to transform its productive matrix.
“Venezuela’s geographic location positions the country to be an exporter of renewables including green hydrogen,” Wegner said. “The country also has potential to take advantage of bioenergy in its central agriculture regions and reduce the sector’s reliance on hydrocarbons.”
Despite holding the world’s largest oil reserves and seventh-largest gas reserves, Venezuela continues to suffer economic and humanitarian crises owing to ongoing political uncertainties.
Declining oil production and lackluster refining capacity have complicated efforts by state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to produce sufficient refined products such as gasoline or diesel to fulfill domestic demand. And U.S. sanctions imposed in 2019 aimed at toppling the government of President Nicolas Maduro have complicated the state oil producers’ plans. Recurring shortages of gasoline and diesel are frequent across the country.
Venezuela’s massive hydroelectric capacity has also been impacted over the years by a lack of investments and maintenance, though in better times it provided the country with considerable renewable energy.
Efforts to reduce diesel consumption in the food transport sector in exchange for cleaner fuel options such as compressed natural gas for vehicles have fallen short. A lack of incentives and infrastructure to support a massive buildout around the plan hurt the initiative. And Venezuela continues to flare, vent and lose gas through leakage to the tune of more than 50% of its gas production.
Venezuela’s government has labeled the adverse effects of climate change as a national priority and has plans for remedial actions with projects spanning electrical energy, biological diversity, food sovereignty, agriculture sustainability, water conservation and waste education among others.
Wegner stressed the importance of education including efforts her foundation champions across Venezuela to inform citizens about the country’s oil and gas reserves as well as the use of gas as a safer and cleaner way to generate electricity. The foundation also favors reduced use of LNG canisters or, worse, coal and wood for cooking needs, she said.
Recommended Reading
Bobby Tudor on Capital Access and Oil, Gas Participation in the Energy Transition
2024-04-05 - Bobby Tudor, the founder and CEO of Artemis Energy Partners, says while public companies are generating cash, private equity firms in the upstream business are facing more difficulties raising new funds, in this Hart Energy Exclusive interview.
GE Vernova Completes Spin-Off from GE
2024-04-04 - GE Vernova, an energy transition company, began trading as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange this week.
Viper Energy Announces Pricing of Diamondback’s Secondary Common Stock Offering
2024-03-06 - Viper Energy will not receive any of the gross proceeds from Diamondback’s secondary offering of its Class A common stock.
First Solar’s 14 GW of Operational Capacity to Support 30,000 Jobs by 2026
2024-02-26 - First Solar commissioned a study to analyze the economic impact of its vertically integrated solar manufacturing value chain.
SunPower Begins Search for New CEO
2024-02-27 - Former CEO Peter Faricy departed SunPower Corp. on Feb. 26, according to the company.