Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro presenting his program Con Maduro + on June 23, 2025. Photo: Social media.
Guacamaya, June 25, 2025. In his weekly program Con Maduro +, the Venezuelan president claimed that the country’s certified oil reserves have increased by 30%.
Speaking about the St. Petersburg Economic Forum on Monday, Nicolás Maduro stated, “Venezuela has the largest certified reserves, and I want to tell you that these reserves have grown by an additional 30%.” He added that the country “has the fourth-largest gas reserves in the world, currently undergoing certification.”
He also mentioned that at the forum, where Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was present, they succeeded in attracting “new investors” for both “oil blocks” and “refining and petrochemical industries.”
But what do we actually know about Venezuela’s hydrocarbon reserves? According to the Ministry of Hydrocarbons, Venezuela has 303.806 billion barrels of crude oil. However, this figure is simply the estimate offered by BP, the London-based energy giant, which considers “recoverable” reserves, while total reserves exceed 1.5 trillion barrels of “oil-in-place.”
The over 300 billion barrels would represent the largest proven reserves on the planet, accounting for 18% of the global total. In other words, nearly one out of every five barrels of oil in the world is located in Venezuela.
Without a formal announcement from the ministry or PDVSA, it remains unclear on what basis the reserves have increased by 30% or what the official figure would now be.
The same ministry also states that “Venezuela ranks eighth worldwide in gas reserves,” with “200.3 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF), according to Resolution 044 of the Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela No. 41,648, dated June 5, 2019.”
Based on a later BP estimate in 2021, Venezuela would have 221.1 TSCF, placing it in seventh place globally. These reserves would account for 3.3% of the world’s total, 30% of the Western Hemisphere’s, and 80% of Latin America and the Caribbean’s.
