Venezuela Fast Facts
Huge oil reserves
Venezuela is a country with one of the largest oil reserves in the world and it is producing a lot of it. There are more than 3.4 billion barrels of oil reserves. This is nearly 20% of the world’s oil reserves. This huge figure is the result of decades of very little oil being produced.
Venezuela has a very active oil industry. Its oil reserves are estimated by the US Geological Survey at 14.7 billion barrels of oil. This is equivalent to more than 40% of the country’s GDP.
Venezuela’s oil industry is very strong. It is the second largest producer in OPEC. It is also one of the top three countries in the world for refining crude oil.
The oil industry needs a lot of money and a lot of investment. It needs foreign aid and it needs lots of investment from abroad. This is why Venezuela receives a lot of investment.
The Venezuelan economy is also very strong. In 2008 Venezuela had a GDP of $527 billion. This is equivalent to more than 11% of the US economy.
Venezuela has also experienced a great deal of economic growth over the last forty years. In 1973 the country had a GDP of $10 billion. Twenty years later the country had grown to $2.7 trillion (the equivalent of almost 30% of the US economy).
Venezuela is one of the three countries that are able to produce ethanol, a fuel that is cheaper and more environment-friendly than gasoline.
Venezuela uses a large amount of crude oil. It consumes one hundred and seventy million barrels per year.
Venezuela was one of the first to use wind power. In 2007 Venezuela had installed two hundred and fifty thousand wind turbines, more than a fifth of the world’s total.
Venezuela is also using biomass for power generation. This is a natural resource that is found in abundance in Venezuela.
The population of this country is very high. There are 2.4 million citizens between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four. There are 4.5 million citizens between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. This is the highest percentage of the population in the country.
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