Canadian technology can increase oil production in Venezuela and Mexico
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Mar 28, 2011, 01:46 PM | Canada (EFE) .- Countries like Venezuela and Mexico with heavy oil reserves, can benefit from technologies developed by Canada to increase productivity, but the Canadian industry recognized that there are trade barriers for transfer.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (ACPP), which represents more than 100 oil and gas producer, also said at the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) which ends today in the Canadian city of Calgary that Latin American countries are viewed as competitors.

Janet Annesley, vice president of ACPP, told Efe that the technology developed by Canada to exploit and process the heavy oil would be useful for Venezuela and Mexico.

Precisely the Mexican company Pemex state, whose general director Juan José Suárez Coppel participated in the IDB meeting, adopted a business plan to increase production to 3 million barrels of oil per day by 2015, almost half a million barrels more than in 2010.

Suárez Coppel said Pemex wants to attract foreign partners, including Canada, for the exploitation of three oil fields in the state of Tabasco.

Canada has estimated reserves of oil of 175,000 million barrels, the third largest in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, but mostly heavy oil located in the Alberta oil sands.

"The easy oil is running out, especially in Latin America, in countries like Mexico and Venezuela. So we must use these forms of unconventional oil, heavy oil from tar sands or U.S. oil 'shell'," said Annesley.

Annesley also said the extraction and processing of this oil is great technological difficulties, but in recent years, Canada has managed to develop technologies that are offering a competitive advantage over other countries.

In fact, Canada's ability to extract oil from Alberta's tar sands has allowed in the last decade, the country has become the leading supplier of U.S. oil, overtaking Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

"Technology allows us to produce oil with a lower environmental impact. That Canada has an advantage and can bring that technology developed in the oil sands, other places. Potentially Venezuela and other countries with heavy oil reserves," said Annesley.

"Canada has developed methods to exploit reserves of heavy oil at great depths and improved the efficiency of alternative extraction methods," he added.

But questions of Efe, the ACPP vice president acknowledged that "the main hurdle for these technologies to extend to these countries is often the difference in business organization."

"Our members are private companies and technology represents a significant competitive advantage. I would like to sell these technologies to state-owned companies in Mexico, Venezuela and recover their investment,"