Venezuela Maturin exploration basin

Nearly 51 billion barrels of recoverable oil have been discovered to date in Venezuela's mature Maturin basin. Finds by PDVSA in the early 2000s and prior, such as El Furrial (Deep) and Tacata (Deep), have demonstrated the prospectivity of the deeper Late Eocene Lower Naricual and Capaya formations. This analysis looks at the future potential of these deeper reservoirs, as well as the shallower Early Oligocene Naricual and the Lower to Middle Miocene Oficina formations, where the majority of exploration has been focused to date. However, exploration by PDVSA seems unlikely to resume for several years given the company's current position. Beyond that, activity levels are expected to remain low, constraining the overall materiality of prospective resources. Associated gas has little value in the basin, since any produced gas must be sold to PDVSA and receives a minimum price, most likely less than the cost of production.