Venezuela launches joint venture to develop offshore gas fields

[Judi Lynn]

March 07, 2009

Venezuela launches joint venture to develop offshore gas fields

(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Caracas, Mar 7 (EFE).- Venezuelan state energy company PDVSA announced the signing of a multi-billion-dollar joint venture with Portuguese, Argentine, U.S. and Japanese firms to develop massive offshore natural gas fields.

The venture, in which PDVSA will have a majority stake, will design, build and operate two liquefaction plants at the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho gas industrial complex in the northeastern state of Sucre, as well as pipelines to transport the fuel to those facilities.

The plants at Gran Mariscal, which PDVSA says will "be the most important gas industrial complex in Latin America," will process 28.8 trillion cubic feet of gas extracted from the offshore Deltana platform and the Mariscal Sucre project in the Paria Gulf.

The partners in the joint venture are PDVSA, with a 60 percent stake in both plants; Portugal's Galp Energia; U.S. company Chevron Global Technology Services; Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corporation; and Argentina's Energia Argentina.

A total of $6.4 billion will be invested in the first liquefaction plant, which will have an annual capacity of 4.7 million tons of liquefied natural gas, while the second will require an investment of $5.2 billion and also have a 4.7-million-ton capacity.

Both amounts include extraction and pumping installations for developing the fields, with commercial production set to begin in 2014 for markets in South America, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia, PDVSA said in a statement Friday.

More:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/03/07/4038503.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Venezuela launches gas project

Latest Update: Saturday7/3/2009March, 2009, 10:56
Venezuela launches gas project
AFP/Caracas

Venezuela’s state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has said it had set up a joint venture with Argentinean, Portuguese, US and Japanese firms to tap offshore natural gas fields.

The venture will develop an estimated 28.8tn cubic feet of known natural gas reserves in the off-shore Deltana platform and Paria Gulf, with marketing plans targeted to begin in 2014.

The $19.65bn project includes building two trains, or production units, for liquefied natural gas (LNG), each with a projected annual yield of 4.7mn tonnes, as well as offshore extraction and pumping facilities.

The mixed-capital joint venture brings together Venezuela’s PDVSA, Portugal’s Galp Energia, US Chevron and Global Technology Services, Argentina’s Energia Argentina and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsui and Itochu Corp. PDVSA will have a 60% stake in the joint venture.

More:
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no...