El Universal reported that development of the Orinoco Oil Belt and natural gas deposits are some of the most ambitious projects for foreign partners of state run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela.

In spite of a hard business environment, including tax and legal changes every two or three years, they would not miss the chance of taking part in development and drilling of huge reserves of Venezuelan hydrocarbons.

Following the traumatic migration of operating agreements and strategic partnerships to joint ventures, oil corporations, such as Repsol, ENI, Chevron, China National Petroleum, Chevron, Sinopec or Gazprom, among others, cherish ambitious projects in their minority interest in Venezuelan production.

Rafael Urdaneta Project, which contemplates gas exploitation in the Gulf of Venezuela, in front of the coast of Paraguaná Peninsula, seeks the production of one billion cubic feet a day of natural gas. For Italian ENI and, particularly for Spanish Repsol, drilling of Perla well at the Cardón IV block has been one of the most important gas findings in their history.

The deposit holds up to 15 trillion cubic feet of gas, and it is matched with the explorations in the Gulf of Mexico and Santos basin in Brazil.

(Sourced from www.eluniversal.com)