Project Profile
Value: $70 Million
Location: Zulia State
Discovery Year: 1955
Production: 50,000 bpd
The Urdaneta West Field is located on the western margin of lake Maracaibo in northern Venezuela. Biodegraded oil 12-15° API is reservoired in Tertiary sandstones and produced through a series of lateral wells. Oil is sourced from the Cretaceous La Luna Formation. Top seal for the reservoir sandstones is provided by the Miocene mudstone of the La Rosa Formation and hydrocarbon trapping is through a combination of structural and stratigraphic mechanisms. The reservoir heterogeneity, coupled with heavy oil, results in poor fluid communication and low recovery efficiency. The field’s complex deep reservoirs contain high hydrogen sulphide content and heavier oil. The world’s largest offshore sweetening plant was built to deal with the hydrogen sulphide extracting about 10 tonnes of sulfur per day.
The production is coming from roughly about 40 producing wells. The field has the capacity to support production of 70,000 bpd or slightly more. The E&P program includes drilling new wells to increase production to 60,000 bpd from current 50,000 bpd within a couple of years (starting July 2006). The project is located in shallow water.
Operator:
PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela SA): 60% interest
Shell: 40% interest
Contractor:
Maersk Oil: Drilling contractor