Mon Mar 1, 2010 9:57pm EST
(Adds minister comment, detail)
CARACAS, March 1 (Reuters) - Venezuela will likely launch new auctions for fields in the Orinoco extra heavy crude region after winning multibillion-dollar investments from oil majors last month, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Monday.
"Yes, probably," the minister said when asked if more fields would be put up for grabs after two consortia led by Repsol (REP.MC) and Chevron (CVX.N) agreed to help develop two projects in the Carabobo area of the Orinoco, which holds some of the world's largest oil reserves.
"With what we have here with the Junin blocks and the Carabobo blocks .... we are very close to our goal," Ramirez said in an interview on state television.
Venezuela last year struck deals with Chinese and Russian companies, directly assigning them some vast fields in the Junin area of the Orinoco region.
Ramirez said future auctions could include a project that was included in the Carabobo bidding round in February but failed to attract a high enough offer. He said any auction for the Carabobo 'Project 2' would not happen this year. (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by Gary Hill)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0112014320100302?type=marketsNews
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