Venezuela is touting a vast natural gas discovery off its coast, a project that President Hugo Chavez says will help turn the oil-exporting country into a major global gas producer.
Venezuela's oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, on Monday said that the latest exploratory drilling has confirmed "extraordinary results": about 15 trillion cubic feet of gas under the sea floor in a place where experts once thought there was only a fraction of that amount.
Italian energy company Eni SpA, which is a partner in the project, announced the drilling results last week, calling it the biggest natural gas deposit in Venezuela and one of the most significant finds in recent in 2010
Energy analysts caution that Venezuela, which already leads Latin America in proven gas reserves, remains far from being able to sell its gas internationally and is still working on trying to meet its domestic demand.
Yet Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni on Monday expressed optimism based on what his company saw drilling at the well known as Pearl 3 in 230 feet of water off western Venezuela.
"In the past weeks, it has proven more important than we had thought," he said at an event launching a separate $17 billion oil project involving Eni and the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA or PDVSA.
Scaroni said the oil and gas projects together mean that Venezuela "is going to be a truly strategic country for our development."
Eni is involved in the offshore gas project along with Spanish energy company Repsol-YPF, and Chavez has been talking up the project for some time. In March, he called it a "super well" and said it could hold up to 14 trillion cubic feet.
Celebrating the latest results last week, Chavez declared, "we're turning into a world gas power."
Venezuela's proven gas reserves have been growing. In August, PDVSA said the country's proven reserves had reached 185 trillion cubic feet, making the country No 9 in the world and first in Latin America.