Venezuelan Energy Ministry has awarded five 30-year licenses to a domestic company and four foreign firms to explore and exploit natural gas in the Gulf of Venezuela, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Tuesday.

The Energy Ministry awarded Italian group ENI and Spain-Argentine firm Repsol YPF the exploration rights for Cardon IV block for their winning bid of 34.4 million US dollars, said Ramirez, who is also president of the Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

The Moruy II block was awared to Brazil's Petrobras and Japan's Teikoku that offered 19.5 million US dollars. Venezuela's Vinccler Oil and Gas won the rights to exploit the Castillete Northeast block after offering 7.4 million US dollars, he added.

The Rafael Urdaneta Project is made up of 29 blocks in a territory of around 30,000 square kilometers. The government estimates the potential natural gas there at some 720 million cubic meters.

In September, the United States Chevron Corp. and Russian OAO Gazprom oil firm won rights to explore and extract natural gas in the Gulf of Venezuela and the state of Falcon for some 46 million US dollars.

Source: Xinhua