Eni invests 2 billion dollars in Venezuela

Eni will finance the production of the Junin 5 site starting next year together with the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. The project expects to reach a production of 2018 barrels per day by 240.000. This was stated by the president of Eni, Paolo Scaroni, in Caracas where he met with Rafael Ramirez, minister of energy and oil as well as president of PDVSA, the state-owned company which has a monopoly on crude oil in the South American country.
Eni and PDVSA signed an agreement in 2010 which provides for investments of 17 billion dollars for the development of the Junín 5 block, in the Orinoco area, the world's largest hydrocarbon reserve. The area is controlled by two joint ventures 60% owned by PDVSA and 40% owned by Eni.
The respective presidents yesterday decided to accelerate the program of the first phase of development to obtain 75.000 barrels of oil per day starting from the end of 2013 and a full field phase with a production of 240.000 barrels per day in 2018. The drilling of 10 more wells by the end of the year it will allow us to go beyond the initial estimates, which calculated a maximum of 50.000 barrels per day for 2013.
Minister Ramirez said that Eni will finance state-owned PDVSA with 2 billion dollars to speed things up. “It is a loan – he declared – which consists of 1,5 billion dollars for the studies and development of the first phase necessary for the early production of oil and for the basic engineering of our refinery. “Ramirez added that in parallel Eni will invest 500 million dollars for the development of a 500 MW power plant in the Guiria peninsula.
In total, the Italian company will invest around 2 billion dollars over the next 7 years.