Output at Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt Below Target

The Orinoco Oil Belt (OOB), a vast territory of 35,314 square kilometers without public service utilities or industrial facilities, remains a challenge for the takeoff of early production in new oil developments undertaken by Pdvsa and domestic and foreign partners, namely: CNPC, ENI, Repsol, Rosneft, Chevron or Gazprom, El Universal said on November 25.

Present production at the OOB, including traditional areas that were seized by the Venezuelan State in 2007 and new developments, amounts to 1.21 million barrels per day (bpd).

Last year, Pdvsa expected this number to end in 2013 at 1.5 million bpd.  When five weeks are away from the yearend, 80% of the volumetric target of average production has been attained.

This contrasts with an increase of 3.4% recorded last year, averaging 1.17 million bpd.

Pdvsa and partners manage the new developments at the OOB, composed of joint ventures Petromacareo, Petrojunín, Petromiranda, Petrourica, Petrocarabobo and Petroindependencia, and located in blocks Junín and Carabobo of the OOB. Add to this Block Junín 10, where CNPC entered as a partner a couple of months ago.

A couple of years ago, Pdvsa had estimated the output in all of the seven projects at least 160,000 bpd. As a matter of fact, it is another story. Following a production cut of almost 100,000 barrels, Pdvsa finally conceded that such goals can be hardly attained in difficult conditions for oil operations.

Copyright: El Universal, 2013