Venezuela on Tuesday awarded natural gas exploration rights for two offshore areas to Italian energy company ENI SpA, Spanish-Argentine firm Repsol YPF, Brazil's Petrobras and Japan's Teikoku Oil Co. Ltd.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela on Tuesday awarded natural gas exploration rights for two offshore areas to Italian energy company ENI SpA, Spanish-Argentine firm Repsol YPF, Brazil's Petrobras and Japan's Teikoku Oil Co. Ltd.
ENI and Repsol combined to offer a winning bid of $34.4 million, while Petrobras and Teikoku won rights to another area off western Venezuela with a bid of $19.5 million, said Rafael Ramirez, president of Venezuela's state oil firm, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.
Rights to a third offshore area were awarded to Venezuela-based Vinccler Oil and Gas, which offered a bid of just under $7.4 million. Two other offshore areas attracted no bids, officials said.
The South American country has sold a total of six licenses to explore for and produce natural gas in the Gulf of Venezuela, off the city of Maracaibo in western Venezuela.
The offshore natural gas project involves 29 areas spanning 30,000 square kilometers (12,000 square miles). The area's reserves have yet to be proven, but they are estimated at some 24 billion cubic feet (720 million cubic meters), according to Venezuela's Oil Ministry.
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Venezuela in September sold natural gas licenses for two offshore areas to Russian oil firm OAO Gazprom and one to Chevron Corp.
In all six offshore zones, Venezuela expects the companies to invest nearly $200 million over the next four years, Ramirez said.
Source: Associated Press
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