By IANS,
Caracas : Venezuela expects to double its current gas production to some 11.5 billion cubic feet by 2012, according to a top official at state-owned oil company, EFE news agency reported Monday.
Venezuela currently produces 6.3 billion cubic feet of gas and expects to increase its output to nearly 11.5 billion cubic feet in the coming four years, Anton Castillo, director of gas processing at Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) said, official ABN news agency reported Sunday.
“With execution of the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Complex, we will be able to process some 600 million additional cubic feet by mid-2009,” the executive told ABN, adding that output would reach “some 11.5 billion cubic feet by 2012”.
PDVSA wants to increase gas production to “guarantee domestic supply” and “joint developments with partner countries,” Castillo said.
Venezuela, according to official figures, has 180 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, giving it the eighth-largest reserves in the world.
Venezuela is the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, a founding member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the fourth biggest foreign supplier of crude to the United States.
Most of Venezuela’s oil is heavy, high-sulphur crude that sells for less than benchmark crudes such as Brent and West Texas Intermediate because it is more costly to refine.