Spain's Repsol oil company and Italy's Eni on Friday said tests have confirmed that their natural-gas discovery offshore Venezuela is the biggest ever for the South American country. Repsol first announced the find a few weeks ago during a visit to Spain by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The discovery was made in the Perla field off the coast of Venezuela. In tests, the well produced “high quality” natural gas with a capacity of 600,000 cubic meters per day and 500 barrels of condensate per day, Eni said. Production is expected to increase to over 1 million cubic meters per day. Repsol said it was among the five biggest discoveries of 2009, with recoverable natural-gas reserves of between 1 and 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The Perla field is in a block operated in equal 50 percent shares by Eni and Repsol, Spain's biggest oil company. State-owned monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA owns the right to claim a 35-percent share in the development phase, which would reduce Eni and Repsol's shares to 32.5 percent each.
