By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 6 -- Three major international oil companies submitted their offers to Venezuela's Energy and Mines Ministry for the right to explore for natural gas in the Deltana Plataforma region off northeastern Venezuela, OPEC's News Agency reported.
The ministry's commission in charge of the tender received the offers and must present a recommendation to the minister in order to proceed in granting the licenses. A December deadline for announcing the winning bidders for three blocks has passed with no announcement.
Last year, Venezuela announced plans to award gas-prone acreage to foreign multinational companies in the Deltana Plataforma region that contains Loran and other undeveloped fields (OGJ, Sept. 30, 2002, p. 32). State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA discovered Loran in 1982.
The region's acreage is considered the lynchpin to President Hugo Chavez's plans to stimulate additional investment in his country's oil and gas sector. For the last 5 weeks, his administration has dealt with a general labor strike that has paralyzed most of Venezuela's oil production, refining, and exports.
ChevronTexaco Corp. of San Francisco, France's TotalFinaElf SA, and Norway's Statoil ASA presented their offers late last month. The companies also seek permits for the transport and distribution of gas extracted from the Deltana Plataforma.
The ministry reported that ChevronTexaco offered $19 million for Block 2 of the Deltana Plataforma while TotalFinaElf bid $100,000 for Block 3. In Block 4, Statoil offered $32 million, and TotalFinaElf offered $5.15 million, OPECNA said.
"This is a historic event because it reflects the strategic decision of the Venezuelan government to proceed towards the development of the country's new hydrocarbons frontier as is the case of natural gas and, in particular, the development of our immense eastern offshore gas reserves," Deputy Energy and Mines Minister Bernardo Alvarez told OPECNA.
The Deltana Plataforma is the first project for the extraction of nonassociated gas in the Delta Amacuro 200 km from the coast near the maritime border with neighboring Trinidad and Tobago.
The project involves an investment of $4 billion and is expected to generate up to $800 million annually in revenue beginning in 2007. Natural gas reserves in the area are estimated at up to 38 tcf.
