Rosneft Wins Two Venezuelan Fields

Venezuela has awarded a 30-year licence to Russian Rosneft to develop two offshore gas fields, the state-owned company's CEO Igor Sechin said December 16.

Rosneft plans to produce 6.5bn m³/yr gas from the Patao and Mejillones fields with 180bn m³ in-situ reserves for 15 years. It is allowed to export all of the production, including in the form of LNG, the company said.

This is the Russian giant's first gas project in Venezuela, though it has been developing several oil fields jointly with Venezuela’s state energy company PDVSA, including Petromiranda, Petromonagas, Petrovictoria, Boqueron and Petroperija projects with 20.5bn barrels oil in place.

Rosneft’s total oil production from joint projects in Venezuela reached 8.4mn metric tons in 2016, of which about 31.8% was its own share. Venezuela’s debts to Rosneft stood at $6bn in August, the company has already announced.

Rosneft also plans to increase its stake in Petromonagas project from 16.67% to 40%, as well as produce more from its Petromiranda joint venture. Neither Rosneft nor PDVSA has announced the cost of developing Patao and Mejillones fields.

According to BP, Venezuela’s total proved gas reserves stand at 5.7 trillion m³. The country produced 34.3bn m³ of sale gas in 2016, about 1.3bn m³ less than it consumed. Rosneft reported November 14 that its net 3Q 2017 profit stood at rubles 47bn ($791mn), 27% less than in 2Q2017. Net profit for 9M 2017 was rubles 122bn, down 4% year on year.