27-04-07

A joint oil and gas company set up by Iran and Venezuela is nearly complete, an official with Iranian company Petropars said. Ali Talebi, who runs Petropars office in Caracas, said that the joint venture will include crude oil and natural gas production. He added that feasibility studies for the first phase of the project have been already completed.
“So, a company will be set up next year to conduct crude oil exploration and production projects,” vowed Talebi.

During a visit to the Latin American state last September, Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad signed the preliminary agreement for establishing the company with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez.
The joint drilling operation will allow the companies to quantify and formally certify the deposits in the block, which are estimated to be as high as 31.2 bn barrels of crude oil in situ.

This certification process is a part of Venezuela’s Bumper Reserve plan which foresees a massive increase in Venezuela’s certified oil reserves.
The 11,593 sq km belt consists of four areas, Boyaca, Junin, Ayacucho, and Carabobo, each being further divided into 27 blocks.



Source: Bloomberg