Continental Resources signs memorandum with PDVSA on Venezuelan block
US company Continental Resources has signed a memorandum of understanding with Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA on the operation and development of the Ayacucho 2 block in the Orinoco Oil Belt, Anzoátegui state. As OilPrice reports, the area covers approximately 126,000 acres, while subsurface resources are estimated at 30 billion barrels.
Contract plans
The parties plan to move toward concluding a long-term production participation contract in the coming weeks. After it is signed, Continental Resources is expected to become the operator of the block with a 100% working interest.
Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler called Ayacucho 2 one of the most significant resource opportunities in the company’s nearly 60-year history. Company founder and executive chairman Harold Hamm said the agreement takes Continental Resources to an “entirely new level.”
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Other investment agreements
According to OilPrice, Continental Resources concluded the agreement amid a call by the administration of US President Donald Trump for American energy companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry. Earlier, Chevron committed to invest more than $7 billion over five years to approximately double production in the Orinoco Belt to 600,000 barrels per day.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said that the 25-year agreement announced by the Trump administration, designed for production of 1.5 million barrels per day at 17 Venezuelan fields, could bring in more than $200 billion. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to the publication, estimated the volume of private investment in the near term at nearly $100 billion.
Also, on September 16, Turkish company Çan2 Termik, through its subsidiary Minerosol Group, signed a separate 20-year agreement with PDVSA on production at the CEMA field in Anzoátegui state. The investment plan amounts to $381.7 million, and production is planned to increase from approximately 400 to 9,865 barrels per day.
