March 31, 2005
Licenses are ready to be awarded for Venezuela's natural gas blocks

(BNamericas.com) - " Fifty major international natural gas and energy companies received a letter from Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA in the week starting March 21 inviting them to participate in the Rafael Urdaneta offshore gas licensing project, a PDVSA official close to the process told BNamericas.

'Yes, that's true, the 50 companies were contacted last week, letters were sent,' said the official, who declined to be identified. PDVSA said that licenses are ready to be awarded for at least 29 natural gas blocks, although in a first phase only six will be offered. The blocks are located in shallow waters inside the Gulf of Venezuela and off Falcon state's shore (...)

Press reports last September said Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Statoil, Total, Eni, Conoco-Phillips, Repsol YPF, Petrobras, Petrocanada, BP, Amerada Hess, CNPC, America Limited, Pluspetrol, Inepetrol, Teikoku, Vinccler, Sonatrach, BG Group, BHP Billiton and Marathon Oil had all pre-qualified (...)".