Venezuela, PetroSA eye oil deal

Porlamar - Venezuela is looking at forming a joint venture with PetroSA to exploit a mature oil field in the South American country, a Venezuelan state oil company official said on Sunday.

The project between Venezuela's PDVSA and PetroSA, which is also state-owned, would require an investment of $400m over four years, PDVSA Vice President Eulogio Del Pino told reporters.

"We signed an agreement to do a study together on mature fields in the state of Anzoategui, where there are around 170 million barrels in the Quiamare-La Ceiba field," he said.

Del Pino said the field, which was operated by ExxonMobil until 2005, could produce up to 30 000 barrels a day.

The two companies already work together on certifying and quantifying reserves held in the heavy-crude Boyaca 4 oil block in the Orinoco oil belt, which Venezuela says has the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world.

The agreement was announced at the end of a two-day summit of African and South American presidents on Venezuela's Margarita Island.

- Reuters