15-11-05 State-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) may form joint ventures with Russia’s LUKoil and Gazprom as President Hugo Chavez seeks to forge energy partnerships around the globe. The LUKoil venture would operate oil fields near Oficina, in the eastern state of Anzoa-tegui, PdVSA board member Eulogio del Pino said.
PdVSA also is in talks with Gazprom, the world’s largest natural-gas supplier, about building pipelines that would transport fuel across the country, he said.

Venezuela is turning to Russia, China and Iran as potential partners to reduce its traditional reliance on US and European oil companies. During a state visit to Moscow last year, Chavez urged Russian companies to invest in the South American country.
The joint-venture talks are “all part of the Venezuelan government’s strategy to diversify its markets and partners,” said Roger Tissot, an analyst at consulting firm PFC Energy in Washington. “If you have more than one partner, you reduce your risks.”

The US accounts for about two-thirds of Venezuela’s daily oil exports of 2.1 mm barrels. PdVSA has contracts with Chevron of the US and 21 other companies that manage 32 fields and are paid a per-barrel fee for their production. Those companies are being forced to convert their contracts into joint ventures with the government.
PdVSA would hold a majority stake in any venture formed with the Russians, Del Pino said. LUKoil, which opened an office in Venezuela this year, previously agreed to help PdVSA certify reserves in the Junin heavy oil block.

LUKoil also hopes to form a joint venture to develop the reserves, the company’s deputy chief executive, Leonid Fedun, told.
“We are in negations with PdVSA, about getting the rights to develop one of the blocks of heavy oil,” Fedun said. “That’s a block with reserves of more than a billion barrels. We have the technology and experience.”

Venezuela has four projects that pump tar-like oil from the Orinoco Belt to the Caribbean coast and process it into synthetic crude. The projects produce more than 600,000 barrels of synthetic crude a day. Partners include Total, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Statoil and BP.
The planned pipeline across Venezuela would help alleviate a shortage of gas by connecting fuel-rich eastern states with the west. The gas shortfall has curbed oil and petrochemicals production in western Venezuela, where fuel is injected into fields to push crude to the surface.

The first phase of the pipe-line project, a 70-km conduit connecting the Falcon Este gas field to the Paraguana refinery complex in the western state of Falcon, is scheduled to go into service in December. The proposed venture with Gazprom could build the rest of a pipeline network that would span at least 500 km, from the Caribbean to Buenos Aires.
“Gazprom is a key company in the construction of natural- gas pipelines, not only in Venezuela, but the entire southern cone,” Del Pino said. Gazprom was awarded exploratory rights to two offshore Venezuelan gas tracts in September.