Abstract & Bio.

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Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Program: Geology of Venezuela and It’s Oil and Gas Fields

Speaker: Dirk Bodnar, El Pilar Petrotechnical Consulting LLC, Murrieta, California
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Abstract:

Venezuela sits on the Caribbean margin of S. America with the Andes Mtns. to the west, the Guyana shield to the SE, the Caribbean islands to the north and Trinidad to the NE. To the East is the Orinoco Delta and Plataforma Deltana with Gas discoveries, and even further east the prolific Guyana-Suriname basins recently being developed offshore in relatively deepwater. Venezuela is located on the plate boundary between SA and the Caribbean plate which moved east into the Caribbean where the current eastern plate boundary is the Barbados Prism north of Trinidad. Transpression with the L. Cret-Tertiary eastern movement of the Caribbean plate caused structuring, thrusting, and mountains along the coast, forming the two most prolific basins Maracaibo in the West, and the East Venezuela Basin (EVB) a foreland basin.

Venezuela is blessed with excellent upper Cretaceous Source rocks from the La Luna in the Maracaibo Basin to the west, the Querecual in the East Venezuela Basin, continuing to the Naparima in Trinidad and Canje in Guyana along the equatorial margin. Additionally, the northern offshore of Venezuela has Tertiary (Miocene) source rocks in those relatively under explored offshore basins (there are 11 Basins in Venezuela). There has been 5000 onshore, yet only 79 offshore exploration wells in Venezuela so the shallow water offshore needs exploration.

Venezuela has the largest proven Oil reserves in the world ~300 BBO of which 240 BBO is the Orinoco Extra-Heavy Oil (XHO, ~8 API) and is produced by pumping and mixing at the wellhead with diluent (lighter oil, naptha, or condensate) to flow through pipelines to the coast where it is upgraded (to ~ 16 API) and shipped to refineries. Very little steam injection has been done, so there is plenty of upside to 45% of the steamable 1.5 Trillion barrel XHO belt. There is plenty of lighter oil left in Venezuela, but production fell from 3 mmbopd to 0.8 mmbopd during in the last decade and the infrastructure, and fields are in disrepair requiring an estimated $US 130 billion or more to recover to 2.0 mmbopd in the next decade. Additionaly, there is
~240 TCF of GIIP mostly associated gas but free gas and gas condensates as well, especially offshore and next to Trinidad.

Venezuela is a beautiful country, with the tallest waterfall in the world, the largest body of water in SA (Lake Maracaibo), the largest hydroelectric project in SA, and the third longest river in SA (Orinoco).

Speaker Bio:  

Dirk Bodnar retired from BP in 2007 after working for them 25 years and has been a Geologist/PE consultant ever since (19
yrs) including 7 yrs living and working in Venezuela. He has lived in 6 different countries and worked on projects worldwide in many basins, including as production geologist on many Giant and Super Giant fields. Born, raised and educated in Alaska at UAF with a B.S. and MSc in Geology, he did his thesis on the prolific Triassic-M Jurassic source rocks that sourced many of the N. Slope’s fields. Dirk worked 10 yrs on Prudhoe as Geologist/PE then went overseas to Venezuela, Kuwait, Trinidad and Tobago, and Azerbaijan retiring to Venezuela for 3 yrs.

In-Person or Virtual Meeting Online

TIME: Doors open 11 am, announcements 11:15 am, talk 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

LOCATION for In-Person: BP Energy Center, Spruce/Willow Room, 1014 Energy Court, Anchorage

LOCATION for Online: Your home or office.

COST: Free. Bring your lunch to the lecture or your computer.
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Meeting ID: 265 759 826 089 473
Passcode: 6Sv9Ev3a

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