Venezuelan offshore exploration could double gas reserves: Chavez

London (Platts)--19Jan2006

Venezuela could boost its proven natural gas reserves to over 200 Tcf as
it launches a series of exploration and development projects in the Caribbean,
President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.

     "Our reserves could double with the exploration of offshore areas like
Mariscal Sucre, Rafael Urdaneta and the Delta Platform," Chavez told state TV
Venezolana de Television from Brazil.

     Venezuela's proven natural gas reserves currently stand at 147 Tcf -- the
largest in South America -- but new offshore E&P projects will likely raise
that figure. The newly licensed Rafael Urdaneta project off Venezuela's
northwest coast is holds an estimated 25 Tcf.

     Other offshore areas outlined for development include the Blanquilla and
Carupano areas in the east with an estimated 10 Tcf and 16 Tcf respectively.

     Current reserve figures already include 38 Tcf from the Delta Platform,
where USmajor Chevron and Norway's Statoil are drilling, and 10 Tcf in the
nearby Mariscal Sucre project, also in Caribbean waters near Trinidad and
Tobago.

     Chavez is in Brazilfor a meeting with Argentina's President Nestor
Kirchner and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on a planned trans-continental
natural gas pipeline.

     The ambitious project could eventually help South American countries
substitute gasoline use in vehicles for natural gas, Chavez said. He claimed
the continent possesses enough gas reserves for the next two centuries, and
urged Bolivia, which has the second largest gas reserves after Venezuela, to
join the pipeline project.

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