The Council of Ministers has adopted the Strategy for the Development of the Energy Potential of the Republic of Belarus for the period until the end of 2020, which says that Belarusian-Iranian oil production is estimated to total up to 9.3 million tons in the next decade.
In September 2007, Belarus and Iran established a joint enterprise called Belpars Petroleum Company Ltd for the development of the Jufeyr oilfield, located some 50 miles southwest of the city of Ahvaz in the province of Khuzestan. The commercial development of the field is expected to begin on October.
According to the Strategy, four wells have been drilled there.
The Strategy also estimates that Belarusian-Venezuelan annual oil production in the Junin-1 field in the Orinoco River basin, which is carried out by Petrolera BeloVenezolana, a joint company established in 2007, may reach 2.9 million tons in 2013, 5.8 million tons in 2015 and later increase to 11.6 million tons.
The most pessimistic estimate suggests that annual crude output will reach its maximum of some 7.5 million tons by 2020 and remain at this level until 2027.
The Strategy says that Petrolera BeloVenezolana produced more than 1.7 million tons in the period between 2008 and June 2010.
In 2009, the company was granted access to the Ostra oilfield in the state of Anzoategui and the Oritupano Norte fields, which include an area of 210 square kilometers between Pedro Maria Freites in the state of Anzoategui and Aguasay en Maturin in the state of Monagas, and the zones of Simon Rodriguez and San Jose de Guanipa in Anzoategui, which total 158 square kilometers, and Block II Lagunillas in the state of Zulia. In 2008, BeloVenezolana reportedly extracted 690,000 tons of crude oil from the fields of Campo Guara Este in Anzoategui and Lago Medio in Zulia.
In 2010, Petrolera BeloVenezolana was allowed to develop six natural gas fields, where oil is also to be extracted. According to the Strategy, the fields’ annual yield of oil is expected to reach 950,000 tons in 2015. Belarus' domestic output of crude oil is expected to total 1.7 million tons this year, down from 1,720,000 tons in 2009.
