Shell is negotiating with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA about the possibility of signing an operating agreement for
Shell is negotiating with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA about the possibility of signing an operating agreement for the Urdaneta Norte production area in Lake Maracaibo.
The first Venezuela's oil licensing of Shell was the Urdaneta Oeste area, which at the time was producing 3,000-4,000 barrels a day but whose output now stands at 52,000-55,000b/d of acid oil with a high hydrogen sulfide content.
Within five years, Shell aims to increase Urdaneta Oeste production to 60,000-65,000b/d through drilling new wells and applying new technologies, and to maintain that production level through the end of the operating agreement, which has 10 more years to run.
But Shell wants to expand in Venezuela in time as well as in area, and so parallel to discussing the possibility of signing a contract extension for Urdaneta Oeste, it is in talks about operating the adjacent Urdaneta Norte.
Urdaneta Norte production is somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000b/d of heavy crude.
Shell will look at new licensing in the Gulf of Venezuela, according to Shell Venezuela VP Frank Duffield.
He said, "Venezuela is a place where we want to be."
