PDVSA close to LNG deal
Venezuela’s PDVSA is close to selecting partners to build two 4.7 million-tonne-per-year LNG liquefaction trains and aims to be exporting gas by the end of 2014 at the latest, said Ruben Figeroa, senior executive with the company.
"We are in the process of selecting our partners...and hope to begin (engineering studies) in the third or fourth quarter," Figuera said in a speech at a conference hosted by the Institute of the Americas, said Reuters.
Venezuela has long harbored ambitions of becoming a major natural gas exporter since the large Mariscal Sucre gas fields were discovered north of the Paria Peninsula in the mid-1980s.
A drilling program in the nearby Deltana Platform area was also supposed to add nearly 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves to support a major expansion of the industry, but the results of the exploration campaign fell short.
Proven reserves in the four Deltana blocks where exploratory wells were drilled total only 6.4 trillion cubic feet, the bulk of which is in Chevron Block 2, where the Loran field was found.
Loran is believed to hold 5.7 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves.
Block 4, operated by Norway’s StatoilHydro, holds only 200 billion cubic feet of proven reserves, according to Figuera's presentation at the conference.
"These are the numbers the companies presented. There is enough gas there for a project," Figuera told Reuters.
The two liquefaction trains and associated pipelines to connect offshore gas fields with the export facilities are expected to cost $8.3 billion, according to a 2007 PDVSA estimate, Figuera said.
PDVSA is currently in talks with international energy companies including Chevron, Shell and state oil companies such as Algeria's Sonatrach to build the liquefaction trains.
The company this week signed an agreement with Portugal's Galp to create a joint venture to produce and transport LNG.
Last week PDVSA said it had signed a similar agreement with Argentina's Enarsa in which Enarsa would take a 10% stake in an LNG production and transport joint venture, with PDVSA holding 60% and third parties taking the remainder.
A joint venture with Chevron will supply gas from the Deltana area to the first LNG liquefaction train while PDVSA will develop the Mariscal Sucre fields by itself to supply the second train.
The total investment in the two gas fields is expected to be $3 billion, Figuera said.