The viscous crude barely flows under the force of gravity and was dismissed as commercially unviable for many years.
Four upgrading projects, led by Total (Sincor), ExxonMobil (Cerro Negro), Chevron (Ameriven) and ConocoPhillips (Petrozuata), changed that view. They are currently producing 620,000 barrels per day of upgraded syncrude.
Conceived as strategic associations with state-run PDVSA, they came to fruition at a time when crude prices were bottoming at close to $10 per barrel.
The
