Eni: giant field Perla resources to increase by more than 30%

The FINANCIAL — Eni has successfully drilled the Perla 2 well, located in the Cardón IV Block, in the shallow water of the Gulf of Venezuela.

The results largely exceeded pre-drill expectations, thus increasing the initial resource estimations by 30%, with potential for further improvement.

This result confirms Perla as a world-class gas discovery, one of the most significant in recent years, and the largest ever in Venezuela.

Perla 2, drilled in 60m of water depth, encountered 840 ft (260 m) of net pay in a carbonate sequence with excellent reservoir characteristics, confirmed by 700 ft (210m) of bottom hole cores that have been recovered.

During the production test, the well flowed 50 mmscf/day of gas and 1,500 bopd of condensate. Normalized gas production per well is expected to increase to over 70 mmscf/day of gas and 2,000 bopd of condensate.

The Cardón IV Block is currently licensed and operated by a Joint Operating Company, owned 50% by Eni and 50% by Repsol, named Cardón IV S.A. The Venezuelan state company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) owns a 35% back-in right to be exercised in the development phase, and at that time Eni and Repsol will each hold a 32.5% interest in the project, which will then be jointly operated by the three companies.

Eni and Repsol have already begun, together with PDVSA, to evaluate options for a fast track development of Perla, through an early production phase targeted to start up in early-mid 2013 with 300 million scf per day.

Eni is present in Venezuela through its participation in Petrosucre, the Operating Company which runs the Corocoro Field (PDVSA 74%, Eni 26%) with a daily equity production of approximately 10,000 barrels of oil per day, and in Petrolera Guiria (PDVSA 64.25%, Eni 19.5%, Ineparia 16.25%) which operates the discovery of Punta Sur. Both the Corocoro and Punta Sur fields are located in the offshore of the Gulf of Paria.

Furthermore, Eni has recently signed an agreement with PDVSA aimed at developing the Junin-5 heavy oil block, located in the Faja of Orinoco, which holds 35 billion barrels of certified oil in place. PDVSA will hold 60% and Eni 40% in the Junin-5 venture, which will be jointly operated.