Venezuela Oil and Gas Report Q1 2011

March 28, 2011 | Budget & Investment, South America

Hugo_Chavez Business Monitor International’s Venezuela Oil and Gas Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, oil and gas associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Venezuela’s oil and gas industry.

The latest Venezuela Oil & Gas Report forecasts that the country will account for 7.67% of Latin American oil demand by 2015, while providing 26.54% of supply. Latin American regional use will average an estimated 7.80mn barrels per day (b/d) in 2010. It should rise to 7.96mn b/d in 2011 and reach 8.49mn b/d by 2015. Regional oil production in 2010 will average an estimated 10.02mn b/d. It is set to rise to 11.68mn b/d by 2015. Oil exports have been slipping, because demand growth has exceeded the pace of supply expansion. In 2001, the region was exporting an average of 3.37mn b/d. This total falls to an estimated 2.29mn b/d in 2010 and is forecast to slip further to 2.22mn b/d in 2015. The principal exporters will be Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil.

In terms of natural gas, the region in 2010 will consume an estimated 208.5bn cubic metres (bcm), with demand of 263.9bcm targeted for 2015. Production of an estimated 221.0bcm in 2010 should reach 264.3bcm in 2015, and implies 0.4bcm of net imports at the end of the period. Venezuela will have contributed an estimated 14.63% to 2010 regional gas consumption, while producing around 13.12%. By 2015, it is expected to consume 13.25% of the region’s gas, while contributing 15.13% to supply. For 2011, there is considerable oil demand and oil price uncertainty, but still a very strong possibility that oil will trend higher. Economic growth may have been subdued late in 2010 and into early 2011, but should still support meaningful oil demand increases. Non-OPEC supply is likely to emerge only slightly higher so, with continued OPEC discipline, the foundations have been laid for an oil price rise – albeit falling well short of the improvement seen this year. It seems likely that the 2010 average OPEC basket price will have emerged around the US$77.00 per barrel (bbl) level, representing a year-on-year (y-o-y) gain of approximately 27%. Progress towards at least US$80 is seen as achievable in 2011.