The development stages:Exploration drilling/2005-11,In production - under development/2010-10.The offshore Cardón IV block includes the Perla field, the largest offshore gas field in Latin America and the first gas field to be brought to production offshore Venezuela. Cardon IV covers 924 square kilometers and is operated by Spain's Repsol, which, with Italy's ENI, was awarded the project in 2005. Each company holds a 50% working interest in Cardón IV S.A., a company created to operate the Perla field. Perla currently holds 17Tcf of gas in place, which corresponds to 3.1Bboe with additional potential. The best wells are estimated to produce over 150Mcf/d each. The development of Perla has been planned in three phases: Phase 1 has a production plateau of about 450Mcf/d, increased from the 300Mcf/d initially planned, Phase 2 has a plateau of 800Mcf/d from 2017 and Phase 3 has a plateau of 1,200 Mscfd from 2020. Cardón IV signed a gas sales agreement with PDVSA for all three phases until 2036. The gas will be mainly used by PDVSA for the domestic market.