Venezuelan oil field revival bids won

This paper reports that four private sector companies or combines will operate inactive oil fields in Venezuela under state owned Petroleos de Venezuela's marginal field reactivation program. The award of operating contract to winning bidders marks the first time private companies will be allowed to produce crude oil in Venezuela since nationalization of the industry in 1976. Winning bidders have committed a total of $720 million in investments to the program during the 1990s. Current plans call for drilling 670 appraisals and development wells, conducting 250 workovers and well repairs, and conducting about 2,9000 line km of seismic surveys. Venezuela's energy ministry is targeting a production level of 90,000 b/d by the end of the decade from the reactivated fields