Related Companies

Symbol	Last	%Chg
SNCAF	49.12	0.00%

CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group (SNCAF, SNC.T) said Wednesday it's been awarded an engineering contract for a heavy oil block in Venezuela being developed by Venezuela state firm PDVSA and Vietnam's state-run PetroVietnam.
"SNC-Lavalin will perform the conceptual engineering for the extra heavy crude oil production, treatment, storage and transport facilities at the Junin 2 North Block in Venezuela's Orinoco oil belt," said the statement from the Canadian construction firm.
The statement didn't indicate the value of the contract, and officials weren't immediately available at SNC-Lavalin or PDVSA.
The Junin 2 block is expected to start producing by the middle of next year, and production could eventually reach 200,000 barrels a day, officials from PDVSA, or Petroleos de Venezuela, said last year.
The PDVSA-PetroVietnam joint venture company, called Petromacareo, is 60% controlled by PDVSA and 40% by PetroVietnam.
PDVSA has also awarded SNC-Lavalin an umbrella technical services agreement for the execution of projects in the eastern Orinoco.
"PDVSA has been a key client for SNC-Lavalin for more than 12 years and we are pleased to play a key role in the strategic development of its oil resources," said Jean Beaudoin, executive vice president of SNC-Lavalin.

-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-120-5738; dan.molinski@dowjones.com