• Submitted by: manso
• International
• 03 / 12 / 2011

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Nearly a year after announcing the deal, state company PdVSA, CubaPetróleo and Angolan state company Sonangol signed an agreement in Caracas that sets up a three-way joint venture for oil production in two oil fields in Venezuela’s Orinoco basin.

Venangocupet is 60-percent owned by PDVSA; Cupet and Sonangol each control 20 percent.

The joint venture will produce oil in the Migas and Melones fields, which currently yield 20,000 barrels per day. The fields are expected to produce up to 60,000 bpd, according to Eulogio Del Pino, president of PdVSA subsidiary Corporación Venezolana de Petróleo.

The joint venture will not only manage production, but also oil transportation, refining and trade between the three nations, Del Pino said in a press release.

Rafael Luis Arias Batista, representing Cupet, said that one of the fundamental goals of the joint venture is recovering production levels of mature oil fields, according to the PdVSA press release.

“We’re not an oil nation, but we are working to optimize production, which has yielded very good results in recent years,” Arias said. “Undoubtedly, in this area we have a lot to contribute.”

This is not the only partnership between the companies. PdVSA and Cupet in April last year formalized a two-way agreement in the Orinoco Basin, in which the Cuban part holds 40 percent. That agreement covers four areas in Anzoátegui and Monagas states. No production estimate for the Adas, Lido, Limón and Oficina Central fields has been published. PdVSA also has extensive operations in Cuba, including four offshore blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, while Sonangol is reportedly negotiating another four. Finally, Sonangol helped Cupet acquire a 5-percent stake in an onshore field in the Cabinda exclave in Angola in 2009.

Source: www.cubastandard.com/2011/03/11/