Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA will begin exporting natural gas to Colombia starting the first of December, the head of the company's gas unit Anton Castillo, said in a statement Wednesday.
These will be Venezuela's first-ever gas exports by pipeline.
Castillo signed a contract with general manager of Colombia-based Petromil Gas Carlos Henao. Petromil plans to take exports of 50 MMcf/d from the Perla offshore natural gas field in the Gulf of Venezuela's Cardon IV block, which is operated by Italy's Eni and Spain's Repsol.
Castillo said the Cardon IV block "currently manages production of 510 MMcf/d, with plans to produce 950 MMcf/d by 2018."
Castillo did not provide details on the construction of infrastructure necessary to transport the gas from Paraguana to the Antonio Ricauter pipeline in western Zulia state nor did he give the dollar value of the contract with Petromil.
Venezuela sees Perla as ending a domestic gas shortage that has been particularly acute since May 2014 when Colombia's Ecopetrol ended export shipments started in 2007 which averaged 200 MMcf/d.
That was when the the first stage of the PDVSA-financed Antonio Ricauter pipeline opened, connecting Colombia's gas-producing Guajira Peninsula with the western Venezuelan industrial city of Maracaibo. After talks, exports resumed in 2015 but ended again in July 2015. over that period Venezuela imported an average 37 MMcf/d from Colombia, according to official figures. The pipeline flow has now been reversed.
Natural gas production in Venezuela increased 4.3% in 2015 to an average 7.76 Bcf/d from 7.422 Bcf/d in 2014, according to official statistics. No gas production figures for 2016 are currently available.