Offshore staff

(Venezuela)-Venezuela's state oil firm Pdvsa and its Iranian counterpart Petropars are planning a joint development of the Cardon II offshore block in the Gulf of Venezuela.

Pdvsa Director Eulogio del Pino said during a tour of a Pdvsa project in Caracas that "An offshore gas development of Cardon II will allow us to capitalize on the offshore expertise of our Iranian brothers."

Cardon II has reserves of 3 tcf of natural gas, which Venezuela badly needs in order to reduce its dependence on hydro generation and to keep crude production above its goal of 3 MMb/d.

The country has proven reserves of 151 tcf, but there is actually a natural gas deficit estimated at 1.4-1.6 bcf due to insufficient development of upstream projects in previous years.

Once plans are finalized, the two partners could begin digging exploratory wells and collecting additional seismic data later this year.

6/8/2006