Rosneft to invest $10 billion in Venezuela projects
Rosneft's investment in the current projects in Venezuela will total $10 billion, the Russian state-owned oil company's president, Igor Sechin, said Wednesday, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Sechin said Russia's share in production will amount to 15 million metric tons annually, the Prime business news agency reported.
Russian companies currently take part in five production projects in Venezuela, including the Junin-6 and Carabobo-2 oil blocks.
Rosneft said Tuesday it will lead the Russian consortium that runs Junin-6, a project developed jointly with Venezuela's state energy monopoly PdVSA.
Rosneft said earlier in January it has signed a deal to acquire private oil firm Surgutneftegas's stake in the National Oil Consortium developing the Junin-6 oil field. The deal was signed during a meeting between Sechin and Surgutneftegas head Vladimir Bogdanov in Moscow on January 25.
Before the deal, the National Oil Consortium comprised Russia's large oil companies Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, TNK-BP, Surgutneftegas and LUKoil, each holding equal stakes.
Surgutneftegas announced in November 2012 that it planned to sell its stake in the consortium. There were reports that TNK-BP might also quit the project.
The National Oil Consortium holds a 40 percent interest in the Junin-6 project while Venezuela's state oil and gas company PDSVA owns 60 percent.
The 447.85 square kilometer Junin-6 block is located in the Orinoco Belt, and has geological reserves of 52.6 billion barrels of oil, with 10.96 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.
Total development costs for Junin-6 are estimated at nearly $25 billion. At peak production, the field is expected to produce up to 450,000 barrels per day (about 22.5 million tons of oil per year), according to information on the Gazprom Neft website.