Venezuela development plan for Orinoco oil belt
Fri Apr 2, 2010 9:03pm BST
April 2 (Reuters) - Russian companies and
Venezuela will invest between $60 million and $80 million this
year in the Junin 6 block in Venezuela's vast Orinoco heavy
crude belt, a senior Russian oil executive said on Friday.
PDVSA and a Russian consortium, which includes state giant
Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and private major LUKOIL (LKOH.MM), agreed in
February to set up the project in the belt's Junin 6 field.
On Wednesday, Caracas said it would begin producing 50,000
barrels a day by the end of this year, and that the Russian
companies would pay Venezuela a first tranche of $600 million
on Friday -- out of an agreed total of $1 billion -- for the
right to take part.
It is part of a massive plan to develop the Orinoco oil
belt -- considered one of the largest in the world -- that is
slated to add 2.1 million barrels per day of new production.
The PDVSA-run projects are mostly set to begin producing
tar-like Orinoco crude by 2013, with a total investment of some
$80 billion. Upgraders to turn that crude into lighter
synthetic oil will be ready several years later.
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