ONGC Videsh has started to produce crude oil at the Carabobo oil field in the Orinoco oil belt in Venezuela. The field is operated by Petrocarabobo, a Joint-venture of PDVSA (60%), Repsol, Petronas, ONGC's subsidiary OVL (11% each), Oil India and Indian Oil Corp (3.5% each).
While initially only a small quantity is being produced, the project aims to produce 30,000 bbl/d of crude oil in the first development phase and 90,000 bbl/d in the second phase. Ultimately, the project will produce 400,000 bbl/d (20 Mt/year) of crude oil, by 2019-2020. The project includes the eventual construction of an upgrader facility that is needed to convert the region's tar-like crude into a usable and exportable commodity.
As per the bid condition, the foreign firms in the joint venture had to offer to offtake the entire crude oil produced from the project. Repsol has indicated that it can take up to 165,000 bbl/d while Petronas has said it could take 100,000 bbl/d. The remaining is to be split equally between OVL and OIL.