Led by Stanislav Tsygankov, Head of Gazprom’s Foreign Economic Relations Department, Gazprom’s delegation paid a working visit to Venezuela, meeting with the leadership of Venezuela’s Energy and Petroleum Ministry and the top management of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).

The parties discussed the prospects for cooperation in the gas sector, emphasizing Gazprom’s success while developing Venezuela’s offshore.

The parties also addressed the issue of constructing a Venezuela-Brazil-Argentina gas main to be fed from Venezuela’s natural gas reserves.

The parties made a decision to conduct the next meeting of the Gazprom and PDVSA’s Joint Coordination Committee in March 2006.

Reference:

Being the second-largest in the Western Hemisphere after the USA, Venezuela’s proved natural gas reserves account for 4.1 tcm, with some 30 bcm/y of gas (mainly associated petroleum gas) produced domestically. The country’s proved crude oil reserves amount to 11.2 bln t (7 per cent of the global total), with Maracaibo, Falcon, Oriental and Apure being the largest oil fields. The USA is a major importer of Venezuelan oil.

The share of natural gas, oil and hydropower in Venezuela’s energy basket stands for 41, 38 and 21 per cent, respectively. The length of the country’s gas pipelines totals 5,000 km.

Although the exclusive right to produce natural gas is being held by the Venezuelan state-run oil and gas firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), a limited number of joint ventures set up by PDVSA and foreign investors have been licensed to do it, as well.

In 1999 the Venezuelan Government enacted the Gas Law stipulating the inflow of foreign investment into the domestic gas industry.

In August 2005 Gazprom was proclaimed the winner of a tender for Phase A of the Rafael Urdaneta project and was awarded with natural gas exploration and development licenses for the Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 investment blocks in the Gulf of Venezuela. In accordance with the bidding rules for Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2, Gazprom set up two joint-stock companies UrdanetaGazprom – 1, SA and UrdanetaGazprom – 2, SA. The potential natural gas reserves of Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 average 100 bcm.