The oil intensive development pattern applied' by Venezuela in the last 40 years, has limited the regional economic growth of the rural areas while the big metropolitan areas are suffering an accelerated and irrational population increase. The corrollary of this rapid industrialisation has been excessive urbanization, high rate of unemployment, rural emigration and a lack of services in more than half the territory. The very centralized energy sector does not even consider settlements with less than 500 people.