PSU oil giants join big deal in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

PSU oil giants join big deal in Venezuela
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, May 13, 2010
First Published: 22:47 IST(13/5/2010)
Last Updated: 22:49 IST(13/5/2010)

Leading Indian oil and gas companies –ONGC, Indian Oil (IOC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have become part of the prestigious $20-billion oil project in Venezuela — the Carabobo-1 oil project — estimated to produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day by 2016.

A joint venture agreement for the oil project was signed on Thursday between the consortium of Indian oil companies and Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA along with two other partners of the project from Spain and Malaysia. The deal was signed in the presence of Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and the Venezuela President Hugo Chavez Frias.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/corporatenews/PSU-oil-giants-join-big-deal-in-Venezuela/Article1-543297.aspx

[protocol rv]

1. Funny how they inflate the Indian participation

The consortium is led by Repsol. The Indians took minor shares. And the project is hardly "prestigious". They bid in a bid round where one of three blocks was left without bids, and each of the other two blocks received only one bid. In other words, the round was so non competitive, the "winners" won because they were the only ones crazy enough to bid.

Now we'll have to see the pudding, are they going to invest? I ask because thus far we've seen dozens of these type of deals, Chavez runs around showing a map of the faja pinned with flags from many countries, but nothing is being produced.