According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) Venezuela for the first time has surpassed Saudi Arabia as the richest oil nation in terms of reserves.

The country’s oil reserves are now pegged at 297 billion barrels which represents a 40 percent spike from the previous year.  Saudia Arabia now comes in second with 265 billion barrels of proven reserves

The new reserves that are bolstering Venezuela’s reserve are coming in from off-shore project and new finds in existing oil field in Barcelona, Maracaibo and Barinas.

To counter the good news for Venezuela is the fact that it does not have the resources or know how to extract all the oil it has in reserves.  The country’s oil production has been falling steadily since 2006 and was the only country to Latin America to lose refinery capacity.