The privately held company that’s partnering with the U.S. Administration to boost oil production in Venezuela has raised output by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) since August and plans to soon add more rigs to further hike production.
North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), announced by the White House in August as one of the U.S. Administration’s partners in “the biggest oil deal in world history”, will soon activate three rigs in the fields it now operates, doubling the number of active rigs in its projects, a source with knowledge of NABEP’s operations told Bloomberg on Friday.
Currently, NABEP has three active drilling rigs in the Junin area in the huge Orinoco Oil Belt in Venezuela. Soon the number of rigs will double, including one rig that has just arrived in Venezuela, according to Bloomberg’s source.
NABEP has a 25-year plan to boost oil production in Venezuela, which envisages bringing a total of 60 rigs in Venezuela, plus 70 pieces of heavy equipment for construction, the source added. NABEP plans to eventually hike its production in Venezuela tenfold.
As of the middle of October, the company’s output was about 223,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), per the source. The production rate is some 20,000 boepd higher compared to the August levels.
The closely-held company hasn’t released many details about how it is financing the operations.
In “the biggest oil deal in world history”, as much as $100 billion in investment could be involved in new oil infrastructure after the interim Venezuelan authorities granted NABEP 100-year concessions for 17 oilfields with proven reserves of approximately 65 billion barrels.
NABEP, led by Venezuela-born businessman Alejandro Betancourt, says it is looking “to rapidly expand its operations in Lake Maracaibo and the Orinoco Belt with the near-term goal of increasing production to more than 1 million barrels of oil per day.”
“NABEP’s $100 billion figure represents a long-term funding requirement, not committed near-term capital, and the company has not disclosed a detailed financing structure,” intelligence firm Rystad Energy said in September.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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