Very well presented Goofy. Thanks. These 65 billion barrels of proven reserves seem more of an illusion than reality - for the reasons you explain.

Given your reservoir engineering background, you might want to explain to people how Venezuela's "reserves" jumped from 70-80 billion barrels in 2005 to to almost 200 billion in 2008 when oil prices jumped well above 100 $/B. The short reason was that previously uneconomic potential reserves were judged now economic at such prices. This was later increased to 300 B on paper with further economic assumptions. That's the figure now widely publicized today. AI search reports the actual economic reserves might be closer to 30 billion barrels. The rest seem to be "geopolitical" barrels.

"Venezuela’s reserve jump from ~100 to ~300 billion barrels was not from discoveries but from reclassification of known heavy oil once prices rose and reserve definitions were broadened.

These reserves exist geologically—but their economic recoverability is limited, and independent analyses often estimate <30 billion barrels as realistically recoverable."

Back in the 1960's Exxon was doing business in Lake Maracaibo via Creole. It was generally known then that huge hydrocarbon deposits existed in what we then called the Orinoco Tar Belt. I dimly recall that's when interest started to develop.