Fishing is an important livelihood for many coastal communities in north-eastern Venezuela, including many of the communities within the area of influence of the Plataforma Deltana field.

Drawing on the recommendations of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) conducted in connection with the project to mitigate potential adverse impacts of our exploration operations, we initiated a pilot sustainable fishing project to improve the living conditions of small-scale fishing communities and their surroundings in a sustainable manner.

The main focus of the project is on building the relevant skills and capacity of communities to sustainably manage fishing resources, through:

• Strengthening community fishing associations, and building the relevant skills to ensure sustainable management of fishing resources
• Improving community skills, material and equipment to ensure compliance with international food safety standards
• Expanding and upgrading infrastructure and equipment for processing and marketing fish products
• Improving market analysis and identifying potential new fish products, especially emphasising basic fish preservation techniques and related products
• Enhancing regional research capacity on sustainable fish resource management.

On behalf of StatoilHydro, the Universidad Simón Bolívar together with the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research conducted a feasibility study for the pilot project. The feasibility study identified the community of Irapa in Mariño municipality in Sucre State as a suitable candidate for the pilot project. Sucre State will be the location of a potential future LNG plant linked to the project.

Irapa also has a well functioning fishing association. Its members are well integrated into the community, and it has a higher rate of female involvement in the fishing industry than nearby communities. It was therefore thought that potential benefit streams from the fishing project would be more sustainable and more evenly distributed among community members.

So far, the project, initiated in 2005, has benefited an estimated 1,500 fisher folk and community members, as well as three cooperatives, including El Pescador, a cooperative recently established with project assistance. In addition, the following achievements can be noted:

• The development of a statistics system designed to collect, analyse and communicate statistics on fishing resources
• Improved fish processing, including hygiene standards and commercialisation. A design for improved and expanded processing and marketing facilities has also been developed in consultation with the beneficiaries
• New potential fish products have been identified, and quality testing and market assessments for select products are being finalised:
  • Fish smoking is an important preservation technique and a product in high demand locally. Construction designs have been completed for a fish smoking centre, and 11 cooperatives have undergone capacity building and training on relevant skills and techniques.
  • Fish silage, an alternative to fish meal to be sold as animal feed, is also being considered. Fish silage is often made from fish offal or waste fish that would otherwise be thrown away.

In 2009, it is expected that the cooperatives and fisher folk involved in the project will obtain the relevant licences needed to start marketing and selling the products in relevant markets.