Venezuela has deployed troops to guard hundreds of shut-in oil wells in Lake Maracaibo in anticipation of reactivating them, Argus has learned.
The Venezuelan Navy's Fourth Marine Infantry Brigade, based in the Lagunillas district of Zulia state, is guarding the 1,500 mature wells, which new military oil, gas and mining company Camimpeg plans to revive in its first foray into the oil business.
The project represents a significant departure for the military, and relegates state-owned oil company PdV to a supporting role.
The shallow-water wells have been shut in by PdV, but have not been abandoned, the military says.
"The operational deployment of the Fourth Marine Infantry Brigade reflects the need to have a custody presence at strategic installations to counter theft, sabotage and other illegal acts that might occur on Lake Maracaibo," the defense ministry said in a statement provided to Argus.
Security is a chronic threat to oil installations in Venezuela, particularly in remote locations.
The extraordinary military presence is meant to be a "permanent and constant" bulwark to protect the wells and associated drilling barges, production platforms, compression plants and other infrastructure, an officer at the brigade's headquarters in Lagunillas said.
The defense ministry said the deployment is meant to ensure safe working conditions for all oil companies operating on the lake. More marine detachments could be deployed in future as needed.
Camimpeg has said it will reactivate wells in the once prolific lake region with the financial, technical and operational support of potential foreign partners.
PdV's western division centered on Lake Maracaibo had been producing about 600,000-700,000 b/d of light and medium quality crude as of 2015, according to official data obtained by Argus. But production capacity has long been declining as PdV focused on integrated projects in the Orinoco extra-heavy oil belt. That decline has likely accelerated over the past year as Venezuela's economic crisis deepened in response to weak oil prices.
The light and medium crude grades such as 30°API Mesa are strategic for Venezuela, because they are used to blend with Orinoco extra-heavy crude for export, mainly to China and India. They are also used as feedstock in PdV's domestic refineries.
PdV has been forced to import light crude from other countries such as the US and Algeria to make up for the decline in its domestic production, but it has struggled to pay for it.
Camimpeg and its US-based but Venezuelan-owned associate Southern Procurement Services (SPS) have already acquired historical and current technical data on the wells.
Since October 2016, Camimpeg and SPS have also obtained historical data series from PdV and the energy ministry on thousands of other wells in PdV's western and eastern divisions, the ministry added.
