Venezuela on Wednesday awarded US giant Chevron and a Spanish-led consortium rights to develop the Orinoco belt in one of the largest oil investment deals of President Hugo Chavez's 11-year rule.
Chevron is joined by Spain's Repsol and its consortium partners ONGC of India and Malaysia's Petronas to exploit two blocks in the vast reserves, just three years after the leftist Chavez moved to nationalize energy operations.
The state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) estimates that the so-called Carabobo blocks together have potential production of 1.2 million barrels per day and would draw 10 to 15 billion dollars of much-needed investment in the OPEC member state.
Large-scale foreign investment in Venezuela's energy sector has been rare in recent years.
But Venezuela, Latin America's top exporter, has sought ways to bolster public finances that have withered amid dwindling oil revenues and a rapidly contracting economy.
"We have won, we have offered the minimum," Nemesio Fernandez-Cuesta, Repsol's executive vice president in charge of exploration and development, told reporters.
Repsol joined Malaysia's Petronas and three Indian companies -- ONGC, Indian Oil and Oil India -- in making the winning bid on Carabobo 1, a vast area with an estimated 235 billion barrels of reserves of heavy and ultra heavy oil.
The consortium offered PDVSA a 1.05-billion-dollar loan and a bond of the same amount.
Chevron will exploit Carabobo block 3, with Japan's Impex and Mistubishi alongside Venezuelan firm Suelopetrol, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said in announcement the winning bids at a ceremony in the presidential palace.
The Chevron consortium offered PDVSA a billion-dollar loan, and will pay a bond of 500 million dollars.
Block 2 was left unassigned, and could be offered to another company or companies "during another procedure," Ramirez said.
Initial production in the two blocks could reach 400,000 barrels per day.
PDVSA will have a 60-percent stake in the Repsol venture, while Repsol, Petronas and ONGC will each have 11 percent and the other two Indian companies will split the remaining seven percent.
Venezuela currently has proven reserves of 142.3 billion barrels of oil and hopes to increase that amount to 316 billion barrels by developing the Orinoco belt.
It currently produces three million barrels of crude per day, according to official figures, although the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) puts its production at 2.3 million barrels per day.
