LL&E wins Venezuelan exploratory block.NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 1996--The Louisiana Land and Exploration Company (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :LLX LLX Lifelong Learning Excellence, Inc (Eugene, Oregon) LLX Louisiana Land and Exploration Company ) ("LL&E") announced today that the Company and two partners have won the exploration rights to a license in eastern Venezuela known as the Delta Centro tract. LL&E will be the operator of the project in partnership with Benton Oil & Gas Company of California and Norcen Energy Resources, Ltd. of Canada. LL&E and Norcen will each own a 35 percent interest in the license and Benton will own 30 percent. Delta Centro was one of ten exploratory tracts put up for auction last week by the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA ("PDVSA PDVSA Petroleos De Venezuela, SA "). The Delta Centro block consists of 526 thousand acres in a mostly-marshy region of the Orinoco River Orinoco River Major river, South America. It rises on the western slopes of the Parima Mountains along the border between Venezuela and Brazil. It flows in a giant arc through Venezuela for about 1,700 mi (2,740 km) and enters the Atlantic Ocean near the island of Trinidad. Delta in the northeastern Venezuelan state of Delta Amacuro Estado Delta Amacuro is one of the 23 states (estados) into which Venezuela is divided. The state capital city is Tucupita. Delta Amacuro State covers a total surface area of 40,200 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 152,700. . Under terms of the work commitment for the block, the group will acquire and process 1300 kilometers of seismic data and drill three wells over a five-year primary term, with the option to extend the exploration period for a further four years. Work will begin after finalization of the model agreement with PDVSA that was included as part of the bid process and subsequent approval by the Venezuelan Congress. In addition to the other terms and conditions of the license, if a commercial discovery is made a PDVSA affiliate will have an option to purchase a working interest by payment of a prorata share of costs incurred to that date. The exploration bid round was the first conducted since Venezuela was re-opened to foreign investment in 1993. Over 75 oil companies were attracted to the ten potentially oil-rich tracts. H. Leighton Steward, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LL&E, made the following comments: "We are extremely pleased and excited to have made the winning bid and to have the opportunity to work not only with our partners Benton and Norcen but also with PDVSA on this project. The similarities between the marsh lands of our south Louisiana base and those of the Delta Centro region are intriguing. We feel that the expertise we have acquired in our decades of operation in south Louisiana will enable us to operate extremely efficiently in this environment. Complementing LL&E's skills is the fact that both Benton and Norcen have been involved with reactivation reactivation to become active after a period of quiescence or, as in bacterial and viral infections, latency. cross reactivation projects near Delta Centro for several years and will bring considerable on-the-ground expertise to the venture. From an exploration standpoint, we believe there is the potential for a number of significant oil fields This list of oil fields includes major fields of the past and present. The list is incomplete; there are more than 40,000 oil and gas fields of all sizes in the world[1]. to be discovered on the block. The combination of all these factors should make the venture an excellent addition to LL&E's international portfolio." CONTACT: Louisiana Land & Exploration Co., New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded Randy Pick, 504/-566-6345 or Al Petrie 504-566-6478 |
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