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PDVSA, find more oil than expected at Venezuela's Orinoco Faja heavy oil block
Antonio Martin
Venezuela's oil minister and PDVSA President Rafael Ramirez
By Elio Ohep
Petroleumworld
MARACAIBO, Venezuela
Petroleumworld.com 06 30 06
Venezuela's oil company PDVSA found a bigger than expected deposit of oil at the Carabobo 1 block of the Orinoco Faja basin, Venezuela's oil ministrer and PDVSA President Rafael Ramirez said in a speech at the Latin America Petroleum Show, Wednesday."We started in Carabobo 1...we thought we were going to find 80 feet of oil sands, and we found 240 feet," Ramirez said
The find is the results of the effort of Petrobras and PDVSA to incorporate and update the reserves at the Orinoco Basin, Carabobo block.
PDVSA, as contracted the certification of various blocks of Orinoco Faja reserves with Petrobras, Petrobars and Gazprom, Lukoil, Repsol and CNPC, to verified the amount of heavy oil reserves in the Orinoco Faja river basin. An independent third party will certified the work of the oil companies.
PDVSA expects to certified at least 275 billion barrels of recoverable reserves in the basin over the next three years.
All the oil companies in reserve certification program have shown an interest in developing the area with PDVSA under a joint-venture project.
Venezuela currently produces 630,000 barrels a day of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco Faja, with four existing projects, Petrozuata (ConocoPhillips -PDVSA), Cerro Negro ( Exxon Mobil- PDVSA), Hamaca ( ConocoPhillips, Chevron, PDVSA),
Sincor ( Total- Statoil- PDVSA).PDVSA plans are double production of the existing projects over the next six years.
However, Ramirez made clear on its speech that the four existing projects, must adjust the contracts to Venezuela's 2001 Hydrocarbons Law, which gives the state a majority stake, before they can increase output.- Elio Ohep, editor@petroleumworld.com, 58 412 996 3730, Caracas.
Petroleumworld 29 06 06
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