CARACAS – Spain’s Repsol YPF will pay Venezuela $207 million to exploit an oil field that straddles the western states of Zulia and Trujillo.

Repsol took a minority share of the Barua-Motatan oil field, which encompasses 432 square kilometers (167 square miles), after lawmakers voted Wednesday to transfer that area to Petroquiriquire, a joint venture between Repsol and the Venezuelan Oil Corporation, or CVP, a unit of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

According to preliminary studies, production in that field could initially amount to 40,000 barrels per day, the president of the National Assembly’s Energy and Mines Commission, Angel Rodriguez, said Wednesday in a statement.

The National Assembly, which previously said it would authorize the transaction next week, said Wednesday it had approved the transfer of that area to the Spanish company, which can use $173.5 million in credit from CVP to cover part of the total.

That credit was issued in 2006 when Repsol agreed to convert its existing operating contracts into minority-stake joint ventures with PDVSA.

Petroquiriquire was formed in 2006 as a 60-40 joint venture between PDVSA and Repsol YPF to operate the Menegrande field, located in the western state of Zulia, and the Quiriquire field, in the eastern state of Monagas.

The company produces 24,900 barrels of crude per day and 34 million cubic feet of natural gas, although “in the near future that could be almost doubled,” Rodriguez said.

“At first the idea was to create a (new) joint venture to exploit (Barua-Motatan), but the decision was made to give it to an already established company in the interest of economic feasibility and to take advantage of existing synergies,” the lawmaker added.

In addition, because Petroquiriquire is partially state-owned, the government maintains control over the activities carried out in that zone,” Rodriguez said. EFE