Gas exports to Colombia to start in 2016: PdV

jueves 21 de mayo de 2015 

Venezuela´s state-owned PdV says it plans to start exporting around 40mn ft3/d (1.12mn m3/d) of natural gas to Colombia in January 2016 through a cross-border pipeline that is currently used to import Colombian gas. 

The gas for Colombia will come from the Perla offshore field in the Cardon 4 block in the Gulf of Venezuela, PdV Gas subsidiary chief executive Anton Castillo said today.

Cardon 4 is a joint venture led by Spain´s Repsol and Italy's Eni with 32.5pc each. PdV holds a 35pc stake.

Perla, scheduled for start-up next month, will be Venezuela's first-ever offshore gas production. Initial output of 150mn ft3/d will ramp up to 450mn ft3/d by the end of this year, 800mn ft3/d in 2017 and peaking at 1.2bn ft3/d in 2019.

Deputy energy minister Jose Gregorio Prieto said earlier this month that all of Cardon 4's first-stage production of 450mn ft3/d is earmarked for delivery mainly to PdV's 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex on the Paraguana peninsula, which includes the 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery and the nearby 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery.

Some first-stage gas will also be shipped to state-owned utility Corpoelec and state-owned Pequiven's petrochemical plants in Carabobo and Zulia states, according to Prieto.

The gas should help to displace some imported diesel at the industrial facilities.

Venezuelan gas exports to Colombia through the underutilized Antonio Ricaurte pipeline will increase through 2017 as Perla ramps up and new production comes on stream from PdV´s own Mariscal Sucre offshore gas project slightly north of the Paria peninsula, PdV says.

Colombia has been delivering about 50mn ft3/d of gas to Venezuela from Guajira province fields in recent months. But in the absence of new discoveries, Colombia has a looming gas deficit. A group of power generators plans to import LNG through a new terminal on the Caribbean coast starting late next year.

PdV was supposed to have reversed the pipeline in 2012 once its own production got underway, but the plan was delayed several times.

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