Venezuela's state oil company Petro- leos de Venezuela SA and private companies operating in the country's eastern Anaco district will invest about $320 million for development and production activity there in 1999.
Most of the projected capital expenditures will be used to drill 50 new oil wells and work over a further 74 wells.
Pdvsa projects that output in Anaco will increase to 200,000 b/d within the next 5 years from the current level of 80,000 b/d.
Jose Pacheco, a senior official with Pdvsa, said, "The area presents an excellent prospect for growth."
Moreover, he noted a better-than-expected flow rate of 5,000 b/d from Pdvsa's TAG 12 well in the Tacatan area.
Pacheco also said that oil production from Anaco district blocks awarded to private firms in 1997 under the country's third marginal fields reactivation round is rising sharply.
"In 1998, these areas had produced 2,200 b/d, but this figure has increased to 8,000 b/d," he said.
There are 10 oil fields in the district that are operated by private companies working in the region under Venezuela's apertura ("opening") operating agreements. Under these agreements, private companies are allowed to increase production in the fields and sell the crude to Pdvsa at a fixed rate.
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