VENEZUELA - Repsol/YPF Operations.The Spanish major Repsol/YPF, among the first to have agreed to convert its OSAs to JVs, enjoys a special relationship with the government and PDVSA PDVSA Petroleos De Venezuela, SA . The company is the dominant provider of natural gas to the domestic market. Its production of condensate condensate, matter in the form of a gas of atoms, molecules, or elementary particles that have been so chilled that their motion is virtually halted and as a consequence they lose their separate identities and merge into a single entity. , oil and gas averages about 100,000 b/d of oil equivalent. This is set to increase by mid-2006 by 60% to 160,000 b/doe and to 220,000 b/doe by 2009. The company produces from five fields, as follows: Guarico West, for which Repsol/YPF has a 100% owned OSA 1. OSA - Open Scripting Architecture. 2. OSA - Open System Architecture. , produces 250 b/d of condensate. Mene Grande, for which Repsol/YPF has a 100% owned OSA, produces 15,000 b/d of condensate. Among other things, the Spanish major is to give up the Mene Grande OSA for a 49% stake in a JV for a new bigger block to include Mene Grande and PDVSA's nearby Barua-Montatan area, which produces abut To reach; to touch. To touch at the end; be contiguous; join at a border or boundary; terminate on; end at; border on; reach or touch with an end. The term abutting implies a closer proximity than the term adjacent. 42,000 b/d of light crude oil. Repsol/YPF has been negotiating similar JVs in eastern Venezuela. Quiriquire, for which Repsol/YPF has a 100% owned OSA, is producing 17,000 b/d of crude oil and 320 MCF/day of natural gas. Quiamare- La Ceiba La Ceiba is a port city on the northern coast of Honduras, Central America on the Caribbean Sea on the south eastern edge of the Gulf of Honduras. With a population of about 250,000, it is the third largest city in the country and the capital of the Honduran department of , for which Repsol/YPF has a 75% owned OSA, produces about 13,000-15,000 b/d of condensate. Yucal-Placer, a natural gas field in which Repsol/YPF holds 15%, produces 100 MCF/day. As in the case of the other companies holding OSAs, Repsol/YPF operates on behalf of PDVSA and gets a fee calculated on the basis of each barrel of oil equivalent The barrel of oil equivalent (bboe, sometimes BOE) is a unit of energy based on the approximate energy released by burning one barrel of crude oil. The US Internal Revenue Service defines it as equal to 5.8 × 106 BTU [1]. 5. produced in these fields. But the focus of the Spanish major has been more on natural gas. Repsol/YPF holds 100% in a natural gas E&P licence it has acquired in the Barrancas area, where its exploration drilling began this year. This gas-prone area is expected to become a major source of natural gas for the domestic market, and Repsol/YPF has a unique gas pricing arrangement with PDVSA (see Gas Market Trends). Repsol/YPF in late 2004 made a gas discovery with the first of 11 wells it planned to drill on the Barrancas block, 225 miles south-east of Maracaibo. The Sipororo 2X well tested 35.3 MCF/day, a rate much higher than Repsol/YPF expected, from 18,840 feet. Gas from the well initially is to feed an 80 MW power plant set for completion this month (see below). The well is near the Sipororo IX discovery drilled in the 1990s by PDVSA. Repsol is authorised to produce non-associated gas on the block, which it acquired in 2001 in the Barinas-Apure basin in Barinas, Portuguesa, and Trujillo states. Block production is to reach 71 MCF/day in 2006 and will be used to supply a thermal power station A thermal power station comprises all of the equipment and systems required to produce electricity by using a steam generating boiler fired with fossil fuels or biofuels to drive an electrical generator. at Obispos, Barinas state. Repsol/YPF said its 100% owned Barrancas block has five potential fields: Sipororo, Guaramacal, Guaramacal Sur, Barrancas, and La Yuca. It is acquiring 3D seismic data. Next up for drilling is Guarainacal in the second exploration phase. The Spanish-Argentinian major's natural gas E&P operations in Venezuela have been profitable thanks to a unique arrangement with PDVSA, under which the state-owned company pays Repsol/YPF a price for natural gas which is above the current rate for domestic supplies. Accordingly Repsol/YPF supplies 320 MCF/day (3.3 BCM/year) to the local gas market from its Quiriquire field (see OMT (Object Modeling Technique) An object-oriented analysis and design method developed by James Rumbaugh. See Rational Rose. OMT - Object Modelling Technique ). Repsol/YPF at the end of March 2005 announced the signing of three MoUs with PDVSA during a visit to Caracas by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and talks with President Chavez. The first of these calls for creation of a JV - the first of its kind in Venezuela - enabling Repsol/YPF to boost its net production by 60%, to 160,000 b/doe. It would double its reserves in Venezuela (currently 233.5m barrels oe) through incorporation of PDVSA assets and it could be awarded new exploration and development licences. The second MoU calls for Repsol/YPF's participation in the Mariscal Sucre Sucre, city (1992 pop. 131,769), S central Bolivia, constitutional capital of Bolivia and capital of Chuquisaca dept. Since 1898, La Paz has been the administrative capital of Bolivia. LNG LNG (liquefied natural gas): see under natural gas. project (to which Total of France has also been invited) and the delivery of gas by this company to the future LNG plant. The third MoU is to enable a Repsol/YPF unit in Venezuela, Termobarrancas, to build and operate a power plant (IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) A protocol for printing and managing print jobs over the Internet using HTTP. Initially conceived by Novell, Xerox and others, the IETF made it a standard in 2000 that includes authentication and encryption. See printing protocol and LPD. ) at Obispos, in the state of Barinas. PDVSA is to buy up to 300 MWh from this firm. Power generation at this IPP was to begin this month at 80 MW. This IPP is to be expanded eventually to 450 MW. |
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