In early 2011, then-presidentHugo Chávezand the Venezuelan government announced that the nation's oil reserves had surpassed that of the previous long-term world leader, Saudi Arabia.[17] OPEC said that Saudi Arabia's reserves stood at 265 billion barrels (4.21×1010 m3) in 2009.[19]

According to Rapier, Venezuela's oil reserves are largely of"extra-heavy crude oil" which might "not be economical to produce"under certain market conditions. (Reuters columnist John Kemp reports that Venezuela's"very dense crudes… are complicated to process," and are priced at a "large discount," when compared to the crudes of other producers.[20]) Rapier notes that the near-quadrupling of Venezuela's claimed"proven"reserves, between 2005 and 2014—from 80 Gbbl to 300 Gbbl—may have been due to soaring crude oil prices that made Venezuela's normally uneconomical heavier crude suddenly market-viable to produce, and thus elevating it to within Venezuela's"proven"reserves. Consequently, Rapier contends, periods of lower crude oil market prices may remove those reserves from the"proven"category—placing Venezuela's viable "proven reserves" well below Saudi Arabia's.[21]

By comparison, Rapier contends, the lighter crude generally associated with Saudi oil fields is cost-effective to produce under most market-price conditions, and thus is more consistently, and uniformly, part of Saudi Arabia's "proven" reserves.[21]