SNC-Lavalin is pleased to announce that it has been selected to perform the front end engineering and design (FEED) for Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.’s (PDVSA) Rio Caribe-Mejillones gas-condensate development offshore Venezuela. This award follows SNC-Lavalin’s successful completion of the concept screening phase in 2010.

The project site is located about 40 km north of the Peninsula De Paria in the eastern part of Venezuela. The development will initially comprise an early production system using a wellhead platform and floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities. It will export 30,000 barrels of condensate per day by shuttle tanker, and gas will be re-injected for future recovery. The second phase will involve full field development comprising two further platforms, subsea wells and a gas export pipeline to shore at Guiria. Gas production will be 600 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).

This project is part of PDVSA’s Project Delta Caribe Oriental development, which will produce about 2,000 mmscfd from Rio Caribe-Mejillones, the adjacent Dragon-Patao fields and the Plataforma Deltana (Loran) field 300 km southeast of Guiria. Gas will be used for the Venezuelan national market and exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG). SNC-Lavalin was previously contracted by PDVSA to review the Dragon-Patao field development and will also manage the FEED for the Deltana pipeline.

“We are proud of the confidence PDVSA has shown in SNC-Lavalin’s technical expertise and are looking forward to working with them on this important development,” said Jean Beaudoin, Executive Vice-President, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.

The FEED work is expected to take 18 months.