After being authorized by the People’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) signed a contract through which ConocoPhillips transfered its shares in exploration and exploitation rights of non-associated gas in Block 2 of Plataforma Deltana, located in Venezuelan territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean, south of Trinidad and Tobago.
The transfer of these rights will enable the creation of a joint venture for the production of non-associated natural gas between PDVSA, with a majority share of 61 percent, and Chevron with a 39-percent share.
The production of this joint venture will be 750 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and it will be transported through a pipeline approximately 300 kilometers long, to the city of Güiria, in the state of Sucre, where it will be used as feedstock for the Liquefied Natural Gas Plant (Train 1), to be built in the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Industrial Complex (CIGMA).
This agreement recognizes only the actual audited expenses, made during the exploratory campaign, which reaffirms the scheme that has been used as a model for the compensations paid by the national government, through the People’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
Chevron and ConocoPhillips had developed, since 2003, under the concept of exploration at risk, exploratory activities that allowed the discovery of natural gas reserves of over 7 trillion cubic feet (TCF).
Plataforma Deltana is a major gas basin located offshore to the east of the mouth of the Orinoco River, and it is considered one of the natural gas reservoirs with the highest potential in the western hemisphere.
Apart from the Plataforma Deltana project, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is promoting two other major projects for production of offshore natural gas: the Rafael Urdaneta project, in the Gulf of Venezuela, where a new discovery of reserves between 7 and 8 trillion cubic feet was announced recently, specifically in the Cardón IV area; and the Mariscal Sucre project, north of the Paria Peninsula, for which the partner selection process is currently under way.
The offshore developments are flagship projects within the Oil Sowing Plan, devised to promote the energy development of the country, securing gas supply for the domestic market and helping to meet the gas needs in Latin America and the Caribbean.