A meeting of the board of directors of the National Oil Consortium was held in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 29. Representatives from consortium members Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, TNK-BP and Lukoil took part in the meeting. Igor Sechin, President and Chairman of the Management Board at Rosneft, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Consortium.

The consortium's members voted for Rosneft to become operator (lead) on the consortium.

Notes for editors

The National Oil Consortium (NOC) was set up in October 2008 as part of efforts to expand economic cooperation between Russia and Venezuela on the initiative and with the direct involvement of Igor Sechin, who at the time oversaw Russia’s fuel and energy industry in his role as Deputy Prime Minster. Rosneft holds a 40% interest in the consortium, with TNK-BP, Gazprom Neft and Lukoil each owning 20% interests.

In March 2010, NOC and PDVSA registered a joint venture, PetroMiranda, to develop the Junin-6 block. PDVSA holds a 60% stake in the JV, while NOC owns 40%. First oil at Junin-6 block was produced in September 2012.

Oil-in-place at Junin-6 amounts to 8.5 billion tonnes. Oil production is expected to reach a plateau rate of 450,000 bpd. To achieve this, more than 3,000 new wells will be constructed, as well as new infrastructure. Once the investment decision is taken, construction work will begin on a special processing facility (upgrader) with a capacity of 200,000 bpd to bring extracted oil up to commercial quality. Agreements were also reached on the construction of a thermal generating set that will run on waste produced during oil production and provide electricity for the project.

The Carabobo-2 project will be operated by a PDVSA and Rosneft JV (60% and 40%). The Carabobo-2 project comprises the Carabobo-2 North and Carabobo-4 West blocks. They are situated in the Orinoco heavy oil belt. Oil-in-place at the blocks is approximately 6.5 billion tonnes. Daily crude oil production is expected to be approximately 400,000 bpd.