The much awaited, long-delayed Carabobo oil auction was finally taken into consideration but was forced to leave the final block unassigned.

Energy Minister Mr. Ramirez said a shoal of companies including the Chevron Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. and Inpex Corp. was awarded the "Carabobo 3" block the group made a $500 million for drilling rights to the block, $1 billion for financing the oil firm, Petroleos de Venezuela.

Further the energy minister confirmed that the group that includes Spain's Repsol, India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional and few smaller firms from India were awarded the "Carabobo 1" block. The group paid a $1.05 billion as bonus on signing the deal and is yet to pay another $1.05 billion to PDVSA for financing. This block is the most strong amongst the three.

However Venezuela is yet to assign the "Carabobo 2," which is still pending and may take more time to finalize the same.

The projects lined up for auction are located in the Orinoco region of eastern Venezuela, which has the production capacity of 400,000 barrels a day, once finalized. The development at the site is expected to begin in coming years.

The concerns addressed by Chavez about the auction are of judicial security of the same in Venezuela.

Japan's is impressed with the Inpex-Mitsubishi Corp, banging the auction for the consortium as a developer, as it will boost the country to secure stable energy supplies.

The winning consortium is in a 60%-40% arrangement with PDVSA, in which PDVSA will hold the majority stake.

The winning bidders are expected to upgrade and refine the tar-like crude found in the Orinoco into a refined brand for the markets, for which the expected cost shall come around $6.5 billion.