Venezuela discovers new oil field

by The Associated Press

Venezuela has discovered a new oil field with reserves of over 350 million barrels of light crude oil, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA has said.

Preliminary drilling on the Chaguaramal oil field in the eastern state of Monagas also revealed deposits of 870 billion cubic feet of natural gas, the company said in a statement over the weekend.

Total deposits may be as high as 460 million barrels of oil and 1.6 trillion cubic feet of gas, depending on the results of more drilling at the field.

PDVSA is still smarting from a two-month strike by thousands of oil workers in December and January that devastated production.

The government fired the strikers and has gradually regained control of the company.

In March PDVSA said it had found two new deposits with over 1 billion barrels of oil that could be developed by foreign oil companies.

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East and is a major supplier of oil and gasoline to the United States.