Petropiar, a 70/30 joint venture between Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA and US oil giant Chevron has restarted extra-heavy crude oil production in the Orinoco Belt, a technical report dated July 12 said. According to the report, Petropiar is operating at 72,000 bpd or 38% of capacity. The report also noted that Petropiar’s output had decreased to zero since mid-June due to mounting inventory pressure.
Crude production in the Orinoco Belt averaged 90,000 bpd in June, but it had risen to 194,000 bpd by July 12. PDVSA operated in four blocks of the Orinoco Belt; Carabobo, Ayacucho, Junin, and Boyaca, through joint ventures with foreign partners. The state-owned company said the areas have a maximum potential of producing 1.3 million bpd of crude oil.
The latest report said oil output in the Boyaca block was at 10,000 bpd by July 12. The Junin block was operating at 11,000 bpd, the Carabobo block was at 32,000 bpd, while the Ayacucho block was at 141,000 bpd.
