Venezuela’s state oil company said on Friday it had purchased ConocoPhillips’ 40 percent stake in a joint natural gas venture with Chevron Corp.
State-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) said it would team up with Chevron to exploit the reserves in that area of Venezuela’s Deltana Platform.
PDVSA will control 61 percent of the joint venture, and Chevron 39 percent.
About 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves have been discovered, and the project is expected to produce around 21 million cubic meters per day.
The company did not disclose details on compensation.
Charlie Rowton, a ConocoPhillips spokesman at its Houston headquarters confirmed the sale, but declined to discuss the price or other terms. He said the sale is unrelated to separate World Bank arbitration over the nationalization of ConocoPhillips’ assets in heavy oil projects.
ORINOCO OIL BELT
The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized four major oil projects in 2007, including ConocoPhillips’ operations in the nation’s heavy-oil-producing Orinoco Oil Belt, after the two parties failed to agree on terms for a minority stake.
But ConocoPhillips continued to explore for offshore natural gas deposits and had worked with Chevron since 2003 in the Deltana Platform.
Chevron spokesman Scott Walker said the San Ramon, California-based company is pleased with the deal.
“We look forward to working with PDVSA on developing this project,” Walker said in an e-mailed statement.
Chavez’s government said last week that it nnight sue ConocoPhillips for exercising an option to purchase PDVSA’s 50 percent stake in a joint refinery in Sweeny, Texas.
ConocoPhillips says PDVSA has failed deliver heavy crude as required under contract to the refinery since the beginning of the year, while PDVSA says it stopped shipping 166,000 barrels of oil a day to comply with OPEC production cuts.
Rowton declined to comment on Friday on a possible lawsuit.
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