\n<\/p>\n
US plans to exploit Venezuela\u2019s oil reserves could by 2050 consume more than a tenth of the world\u2019s remaining carbon budget to limit global heating to 1.5C, according to an exclusive analysis.<\/p>\n
The calculation highlights how any moves to further exploit the South American nation\u2019s oil reserves \u2013 the largest in the world, at least on paper \u2013 would put increasing pressure on climate goals, and risk plunging the Earth further into climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s proven oil reserves are so vast that if they were fully tapped, they would, by themselves, exhaust the entire carbon budget for keeping the world within the 1.5C temperature rise that climate scientists say is the limit for avoiding the worst effects of climate breakdown.<\/p>\n
Such an eventuality is unlikely. After years of sanctions, Venezuela\u2019s oil infrastructure is decrepit and crumbling. But in the week since US special forces kidnapped Venezuela\u2019s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and rendered him to New York, Donald Trump has urged oil companies to invest $100bn (\u00a374bn) to get Venezuela\u2019s wells flowing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be extracting numbers in terms of oil like few people have seen,\u201d the US president told oil executives on Friday.<\/p>\n
An analysis for the Guardian by ClimatePartner, a carbon accounting firm, modelled the carbon impact of the growth of Venezuela\u2019s oil production by +0.5m barrels per day by 2028, ramping up to +1.58m barrels per day from 2035 to 2050.<\/p>\n
Such a scenario \u2013 which would still fall far short of the 3.5m barrels a day produced during Venezuela\u2019s last oil boom in the 1990s \u2013 would by itself consume 13% of the total remaining carbon budget to keep global heating within 1.5C.<\/p>\n
The oil extracted from Venezuela\u2019s vast reserves is, according to industry estimates, the filthiest in the world.<\/p>\n
Classed as a heavy, sour grade, Venezuela\u2019s crude has a dense, tar-like consistency and a high sulphur content. These fluids do not flow like conventional oil; compared with the light, sweet crude of a country like Saudi Arabia, they require energy intensive processes to extract from the ground.<\/p>\n
It is for these reasons that a study by S&P Global Platts Analytics found Venezuela\u2019s Orinoco Belt deposits to have by far the highest carbon intensity of any major oil region.<\/p>\n
For example, it was almost 1,000 times higher than crude produced from Norway\u2019sJohan Sverdrup field, which has a carbon intensity of 1.6kg of carbon dioxide per barrel of oil equivalent \u2013 compared with 1,460kgCO2e\/boe for Venezuela\u2019s Orinoco Belt. The report found that Venezuela\u2019s \u201cextreme\u201d carbon intensity shows that this crude stream would \u201cface challenges in a world with tight carbon budgets\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hollie Parry, senior analyst at ClimatePartner, said: \u201cThe decision to ramp up production of one of the world\u2019s most carbon intensive crude oils to historic levels would consume an estimated 13% of the remaining global carbon budget \u2013 the equivalent to nearly a decade of emissions from the entire EU, from a single oil expansion. In a rapidly warming world, such a move would lock in decades of high emissions at precisely the moment when science demands a swift transition away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy and low-carbon solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environmental campaigners have slammed the US\u2019s claim on Venezuelan oil, a move \u201cboth reckless and dangerous\u201d, according to Mads Christensen, executive director of Greenpeace International.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe only safe path forward is a just transition away from fossil fuels, one that protects health, safeguards ecosystems, and supports communities rather than sacrificing them for short-term profit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US plans to exploit Venezuela\u2019s oil reserves could by 2050 consume more than a tenth of the world\u2019s remaining carbon budget to limit global heating to 1.5C, according to an exclusive analysis. The calculation highlights how any moves to further exploit the South American nation\u2019s oil reserves \u2013 the largest in the world, at least<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[18704,113,2521,186,187,9687,10224,3061,268,1436,9956],"class_list":{"0":"post-41397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-1-5c","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-carbon","11":"tag-climate","12":"tag-crisis","13":"tag-eat","14":"tag-exploit","15":"tag-limit","16":"tag-oil","17":"tag-plan","18":"tag-venezuelas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}