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Venezuela aims to add 5 bil barrels of extra heavy crude reserves
PLATTS
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 05 10 06
Venezuela hopes to incorporate some 5 billion barrels into its proven
reserves from studies being carried out in the vast Orinoco Belt region,
Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Monday.
"Five billion barrels...that is what we estimate we will have from the
certification process," Ramirez told reporters after a press conference in
Caracas.
State oil company PDVSA last year invited seven foreign oil companies
chosen to certify reserves in the Orinoco Belt ahead of a new round of
development. The Belt has estimated recoverable reserves of 235 billion
barrels, which would put Venezuela in Saudi Arabia's league when combined with
its proven reserves of 80 billion barrels.
Aside from Spain's Repsol YPF, all the companies are state-owned by
governments friendly with Venezuela: China's CNPC, Brazil's Petrobras, India's
ONGC, Iran's Petropars, and Gazprom and Lukoil from Russia.
Ramirez said Petrobras and Petropars had already finished their studies,
which consisted of checking data compiled by PDVSA in the 1980s. He declined
to give more details. CNPC is also reported to have completed its work in the
area, but Repsol YPF only began its studies two months ago and won't be
finished for another year.
Venezuela plans to continue issuing new blocks for quantifying as results
come in.
"The certification will be ongoing," Ramirez said.
The ministry has yet to decide on how to develop the next round of
projects in the Orinoco Belt but Ramirez confirmed that the seven companies
doing the certification would be viewed favorably when operators are being
chosen. "They don't have any automatic rights (to the fields) but they have
the advantage of already working with us," he said.
Four existing projects in the Orinoco Belt, set up in the 1990s, extract
over 600,000 b/d of extra heavy oil and upgrade it into synthetic crude that
is shipped abroad for further processing.
Platts 05 09 06
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