Venezuela has picked at least four companies from China, Malaysia, Russia and Algeria for a long-delayed offshore natural gas project in the South American Opec member, sources at the companies said.

The continent’s biggest crude oil producer is sitting on some of the world’s largest offshore gas reserves, experts say, but it has yet to begin producing any commercial gas.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has spent more than a decade searching for partners to develop its Mariscal Sucre project, which is estimated to hold 14.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

The sources said the companies involved were China’s CNOOC, Petronas of Malaysia, Sonatrach of Algeria and a Russian consortium. The members of the Russian consortium are Rosneft, Surgutneftegaz, TNK-BP, Lukoil and Gazprom, the sources told Reuters.

Venezuela was hit by a severe drought last year that slashed production at its hydroelectric dams and led to a renewed focus on boosting gas- and diesel-fueled generation. It suffered a setback last May when a gas exploration rig operated by PDVSA sank at Mariscal Sucre, but officials said the accident would not derail the project, nor set back production they said was due to begin there in November 2012.

Last August, the Energy Ministry said Venezuela’s natural gas reserves totaled more than 185 tcf, the ninth-highest in the world.