February 25, 2005
Shell and PDVSA plan to go forward in the Mariscal Sucre joint venture

(Upstream) - "State-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Shell have reaffirmed their plans to go forward with the proposed Mariscal Sucre joint venture, aimed at producing and exporting gas from the northern sector of the Gulf of Paria (...)

A PDVSA statement said the two companies plan to go forward in the $2.7 billion project, which would develop offshore natural gas reserves to feed a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal producing 4.7 million tonnes per year.

Mariscal Sucre partners PDVSA (60%), Shell (30%) and Mitsubishi (8%) have been negotiating the project for years, but disagreements over its structuring and the market destination of the gas have caused new delays.

Venezuela announced that it was holding talks aimed at bringing Brazil's Petrobras into the project triggered speculation that Shell's days in the project were numbered (...)

But sources on both sides have suggested that Petrobras is more likely to take a share of PDVSA's proposed 60% stake, and that the Shell-led project is still alive (...)

Shell and PDVSA are also discussing a project to develop extra-heavy crude reserves in Venezuela's Orinoco belt.

'Teams are being created to negotiate definitive agreements for these projects before the end of 2005,' PDVSA said.

In Lake Maracaibo, the two companies are also discussing co-operation in the development of Urdaneta North, which is adjacent to the Shell-operated Urdaneta West field (...)".