Petroleum Industry in Venadia
The petroleum industry in Venadia is a significant contributor to its national economy, and even moreso in the oil-producing regions. In 2010, the Venadian petroleum industry contributed a total of 13% of Venadia's overall economy. The Venadian petroleum industry consists of both significant production of oil and natural gas, of which the country is a major exporter.
Venadia produced an average of 5.68 million barrels of petroleum a day in August of 2014, a number that has been steady in the years after. Roughly half of production is oil while the other half is natural gas. Venadia exports around 2.0 million barrels of petroleum a day, primarily to north-east Ardanian countries such as the Vesan Union and Breheim. The height of Venadian production and exports was in 2004 when it produced 6.8 million barrels of petroleum a day and exported 3.1 million barrels.
Venadia has massive proven reserves of natural gas, estimates ranging from 29.5 trillion cubic meters to 34.1 trillion cubic meters. The Venadian government further estimates that the country has between 5 to 10 trillion cubic meters of undiscovered natural gas reserves, particularly in the north. Proven recoverable oil reserves in Venadia is at 62 billion barrels according to Venoil. Unproven reserves range between estimates of a further 12 billion barrels to upwards of 35 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The majority (80%) of Venadian oil is refined domestically.
The Venadian petroleum sector is dominated by the state-owned companies of Venoil and Vengas. Venoil operates three quarters of Venadian refineries and more than half of all oil wells, while seventy percent of Venadian gas wells are operated by Vengas. The Venadian pipeline system is operated directly by the Ministry of Energy and Electricity through four different companies. Venoil and Vengas are responsible for the exploitation of Venadia's petroleum fields, which they do in a mixture of leasing out fields to private companies and managing wells directly. Private refineries may not directly purchase Venadian oil from private companies involved in extraction, but are required to go through the state companies.