(Platts Oilgram News) – “Venezuela is moving forward to ‘the next step’ with its Carabobo project in the Orinoco region by devising a business plan to develop it now that reserves have been certified, an official with state oil company PDVSA said.

‘Our work in certifying the Carabobo is now done; now I understand that the Energy and Oil Ministry is moving forward with the next step, drawing up a business plan for each block, whether they will go at it solo or with a partner,’ said one PDVSA official who had provided reserves certifier Ryder Scott with the data used in certifying the 129 billion barrels of extra heavy crude there.

The PDVSA official also said that Brazil's state-controlled energy giant
Petrobras is the most likely partner in blocks Carabobo 1 and 2 (…)

A different, relatively small portion of the ‘Faja,’ as the Venezuelans
call the Orinoco Tar Belt, was recently nationalized, meaning, among other things, that US oil majors ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips had their stake in projects there taken away by PDVSA. Compensation is what they have to look forward now, the Venezuelan government said (…)

PDVSA says the new Orinoco projects can be producing 800,000 b/d in three years' time, which would require bringing production at Carabobo online by the end of 2007 or early 2008, the official admitted”.