Venezuela sets third marginal fields round

What PDVSA is offering in third marginal fileds round [76731 bytes]

Venezuela's long-range program to rejuvenate its marginal fields continues to gather momentum with disclosure of its third operating agreement round and new initiatives to encourage participation.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa), and Pdvsa units Corpoven SA, Lagoven SA, and Maraven SA said the upcoming round will involve 20 inactive and producing marginal field areas covering 7,800 sq km (1.9 million acres) in Venezuela's eastern and western basins.

Pdvsa said the areas could contain an estimated 2-3 billion bbl of oil reserves.

"The third round represents the next stage of the highly successful process, started in 1991, of reactivating fields and incorporating them into Venezuela's mainstream production," said Energy and Mines Minister Erwin Arrieta.

In the next 10-15 years, Venezuela hopes to generate as much as $12 billion in added investment in its upstream sector. It plans to increase its production capacity to more than 6 million b/d as part of a continuing upstream development plan (OGJ, Feb. 12, p. 31).

Pdvsa hopes production from the 20 fields to be offered will yield about 300,000 b/d incrementally. Production from the 15 fields included in the first two bid rounds totals about 450,000 b/d, Pdvsa said.

What's involved, terms

The 20 areas offered cover both onshore and offshore acreage and include Lake Maracaibo acreage (see maps).

The areas contain more than 3,000 wells, about 700 of which are producing mostly light and medium oil at combined rates of about 66,000 b/d.

Fields offered in western Venezuela are: Ambrosio, Bachaquero South West, Cretacico Sur, La Concepcion, Mene Grande, Intercampo North, B-2X.70/80, B-2X.68/79, LL-652, Cabimas, and La Vela Costa Afuera.

Offered eastern fields are: Acema, Boqueron, Caracoles, Casma Anaco, Dacion, Kaki, Maulpa, Mata, and Onado.

Bidding is expected to take place in mid-late May 1997. Companies have until Dec. 20 to submit a formal expression of interest to be pre-qualified for bidding. Informational meetings are also planned in Caracas, Houston, and London this month.

Following notification to qualified companies, there will be a 4-month period during which companies may acquire and study information packages covering each of the areas offered.

Awards will be made on the basis of the highest cash bid.

Five fields are reserved for Venezuelan companies or groups of companies that have a Venezuelan operator. They are: Acema, Casma Anaco, Kaki, Maulpa, and Mata. The Minister of Energy & Mines said he hopes this will encourage greater domestic participation in Venezuela's exploration and production sector.

Also, the ministry wants to encourage participation by Venezuelan companies whose activity has been limited so far to engineering and other services, companies entering the oil sector for the first time, and entrepreneurial and/or start-up companies.

Under each of the operating agreements, the successful company or group will be required initially to evaluate and then present a plan to undertake, on behalf of the affiliate, the rehabilitation, reactivation, and continuing development of the area involved.

After development plan approval, all costs incurred under resulting 20-year operating agreements will be paid by the contractor. The agreement period begins as of the date a development plan is approved by the government.

Contractors will be compensated by a single per-barrel fee on incremental production gained from the areas.

New initiatives

Pdvsa said two new initiatives will be introduced in the third round:

First, the five fields that are reserved to Venezuelan companies are an attempt to form the core of a new, emerging exploration and production sector, according to Claus Graf, Pdvsa vice-president.

"While these operators will be free to form joint ventures with international companies in bidding for these areas, this will provide a significant new opportunity not only for existing Venezuelan oil and service companies, but also for new ventures formed especially for this round," Graf said.

Second, a new investment vehicle will be offered to encourage direct participation by the Venezuelan public.

Graf said the new vehicle is to be organized through a new Pdvsa unit, Soc. de Fomento de Inversiones Petroleras (Sofip).

Graf said, "While the details of the (Sofip) vehicle are still being finalized, it will be given the opportunity to participate in all the areas as a 10% working interest partner alongside winning consortium members."

As now planned, Graf said the vehicle will be floated on the Caracas stock exchange and possibly internationally as well, "within 12 months of the successful conclusion of the round."