Rosneft in Venezuela heavy oil pact

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez takes a sample of crude during his weekly broadcast at a nationalized oil field at Orinoco's belt in the southern strip of the eastern Orinoco River February 17, 2008. Chavez said on Sunday he will cut oil sales to the United States if Washington attacks the South American country as the country is in the midst of a legal battle with U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil, which recently won court orders freezing up to $12 billion in Venezuelan assets to ensure compensation for an oil project Chavez nationalized last year. REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout (VENEZUELA). EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

Investment: to tap Orinoco heavy oil

HO

related stories

Steve Marshall

, Steve Marshall

 08 December 2011 15:14 GMT

Rosneft signed a memorandum of understanding with PDVSA on Thursday for joint development of a Venezuelan heavy oil project involving a total $2.6 billion outlay by the Russian state oil company.

The pair will develop the Carabobo-2 project, comprising the Karabobo-2 North and Carabobo-4 West blocks and covering 324 square kilometres in the Orinoco heavy oil belt, under the preliminary pact.

Rosneft will hold a 40% stake in the proposed joint venture with the remaining 60% to be held by CVP, a subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

The joint venture aims to exploit estimated in-place reserves at the blocks of 40 billion barrels, with production set to peak at more than 400,000 barrels per day.

Under the MoU, Rosneft will pay an initial…

Become an Upstream member!

Membership includes a subscription to our weekly newspaper providing in-depth news from the energy industry, plus full-access to this site and its archives. Still not convinced? Try our free trial.

Already a member?

Login

Upstream share price index