Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) is an international energy corporation wholly owned by the Republic of Venezuela, whose principal areas of activity are petroleum, bitumen, natural gas, coal and petrochemicals. The steady expansion of PDVSA's NATURAL GAS INFRASTRUCTURE IN Venezuela and the strong performance of its subsidiaries, has contributed to increase its operational and marketing flexibility, thus allowing it to evolve from a simple exporter of crude oil and refined products to an important supplier of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) to the world's major energy markets. In this respect Corpoven one of PDVSA's affiliated Companies has made considerable progress with the expansion of its Eastern Venezuela Cryogenic Complex. In 1994 it will produce an incremental volume of 45 thousand barrels per day of natural gas liquids from gas pipe in from northern Monagas region. Also, it has programmed the installation of two other Criogenic Plants in the next ten years, and as a result NGL exports are expected to increase from 175 thousand barrels day in 1994 to 232 thousand barrels day in 1998. Plans are also well underway for Venezuela to become a major exporter of LNG towards the turn of the century. More specifically, at the end of 1992, another PDVSA subsidiary, Lagoven, reached an agreement with Exxon, Shall and Mitsubishi to develop the Cristobal Colon LNG project, which calls for the exploitation of vast reserves of natural gas located in the Gulf of Paria, in northeastern Venezuela. The projected LNG production is in the order of 6 million tons per year.