Rosneft, PDVSA discuss investment opportunities offshore Venezuela

The president of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), Eulogio Del Pino, welcomed yesterday, May 28, 2015, the president of the Russian state oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin.

They evaluated joint projects that are being developed in Venezuela.

During his visit, Sechin also met with the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro. The parties discussed a wide range of issues concerning ongoing cooperation and outlook for development of the new projects.

According to the press release, Del Pino and Sechin discussed strategies to increase production of the joint ventures Petromonagas, Petromiranda and Petrovictoria, at the “Hugo Chávez Frías” Orinoco Oil Belt. They also evaluated new investment opportunities offered by the huge non-associated gas resource base in offshore areas of Venezuela.

PDVSA says that in the current market conditions, both companies seek to define strategies to optimize their investments in the building of production and upgrading facilities, in order to take advantage of installed capacity and achieve a better return on investment.

PDVSA said that Rosneft has offered to increase its equity participation in the joint venture Petromonagas, which currently produces and upgrades more than 130 Mbbls/d of extra heavy crude, to reach the 40% that international partners can acquire under the current business model. Rosneft has also offered to develop projects, together with PDVSA, for the production of non-associated gas to meet domestic market demand and export the surplus through schemes that are currently being evaluated, PDVSA added.

Finally, Rosneft and PDVSA reviewed the selection of the first 20 PDVSA workers who will attend specialized studies in various areas of the oil business at the University of Gubkin, in the Russian Federation, as part of a long term training program, and part of a technology transfer agreement signed between the two companies with the backing of their respective governments.