A 50-50 joint venture of Eni SPA and Repsol SA has started production from giant Perla natural gas field in shallow water offshore Venezuela.
Production is to reach 450 MMscfd by yearend in the first of three development phases. In a second phase, production will climb to 800 MMscfd in 2017. A third phase will increase output to 1.2 bscfd in 2020, a rate the partners say is sustainable through the end of their contract in 2036.
Perla, discovered in 2009, holds an estimated 17 tcf of gas in place in Miocene-Oligocene carbonates occurring at about 3,000 m below sea level.
The Cardon IV SA joint venture, named for the Gulf of Venezuela block, has drilled seven wells. It plans to a total of 26 wells, 21 of them producers, in a development scheme involving four light platforms installed 50 km offshore in 60 m of water. The platforms will be linked by a 30-in. pipeline to a central processing facility onshore at Punto Fijo on the Paraguana Peninsula. Two treatment trains have capacities of 150 MMscfd and 300 MMscfd.
State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA is buying the gas (OGJ Online, Jan. 5, 2012).
