Eni begins oil production at Venezuela's Junin-5 ahead of schedule
MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - PetroJunin, the joint venture between Italian Eni and Venezuela's PDVSA, has begun producing oil at the Junin-5 block in the Orinoco Basin, PDVSA said in a statement.
The first production well has the potential to produce 700 barrels per day. PetroJunin plans to ramp up production to 15,000 bpd by the end of the year, to 75,000 bpd by 2015 and to peak production of 240,000 bpd in 2018.
Production began nine months ahead of schedule.
PDVSA has a 60% stake in PetroJunin and Eni has 40%.
A consortium of Russian oil companies, National Oil Consortium (NOC), is developing the Junin-6 block. NOC owns 40% in the Russian-Venezuelan joint venture Petromiranda and the other 60% belongs to PDVSA.
Junin-6's geological reserves amount to 52.6 billion barrels of oil, with 10.96 billion barrels recoverable. Total costs for the block's development are estimated at almost $25 billion. Production is slated to peak at 450,000 bpd (roughly 22.5 million tonnes a year). Commercial oil production began at Junin-6 in September 2012.