Gazprom to start exploratory gas drilling in Venezuela

Gazprom to start exploratory gas drilling in Venezuela http://en.rian.ru/world/20081102/118098980.html

MEXICO CITY, November 2 (- A Russian floating platform will start to drill deep test wells on November 7 to prospect natural gas fields in the Gulf of Venezuela, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday. In 2005, Gazprom won a tender to prospect and develop natural gas blocks Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 in the Gulf of Venezuela as part of the Rafael Urdaneta project. Speaking at the ceremony of opening an electric power plant in the state of Falcon, Chavez said that the Gulf of Venezuela boasted natural gas reserves of 100 billion cubic meters. The Venezuelan leader also urged other countries to take part in exploration drilling in the territorial waters of Venezuela. Venezuela's proven natural gas reserves amount to 4.1 trillion cubic meters. The Latin American country holds the second-largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere after the United States

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"With some 180 trillion cubic feet [of natural gas], of which 150 trillion are inland and 30 trillion are offshore, with all of these gasification plans, the plans of development, we can double our reserves and convert ourselves into a great world power in energy," Chavez declared during a visit to a natural gas plant in the state of Anzoategui in eastern Venezuela .. The Venezuelan president also touched on plans to build gas pipelines to other countries in the region, including the well-known plan for a pipeline through the Brazilian Amazon. Chavez said he would be discussing the pipeline again with the Brazilian president .. http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2607