OREANDA-NEWS. October 25, 2012. The first images collected by Miranda Satellite, Venezuela’s second satellite in orbit, were released on Wednesday 17. The images will speed up the development of new projects – among them the strengthening of oil activities in Venezuela - which will contribute to the development of the country.

During the exhibition, Francisco Guerra, Environmental Manager of Intevep, the technology arm of state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), stressed the importance for PDVSA to have a portfolio of images provided by the satellite. Guerra showed an image of the town of San Timoteo, in the northwestern state of Zulia, where the old San Lorenzo refinery is located.

The manager of PDVSA’s subsidiary said that the images taken by the spacecraft will provide an aerial view of the following oil activities: exploration, distribution, oil prospecting, construction of geological models, selection of sites for new oil constructions, surface and infrastructure management, and particularly on environmental issues.

“The Miranda Satellite (named after Independence leader Francisco de Miranda) is highly important for Venezuelan oil industry, because we work with hundreds of satellite images in each of our activities,” Guerra said.

The Miranda Satellite will display over 300 images per day. The spacecraft is in an adjustment process, as a result of an assessment of the performance of the elements of the system.

The earth observation satellite will provide imaging for exploration and location of natural resources, crop monitoring, as well as applications for the oil industry.