Venezuela natural gas auction closes with no offers

CARACAS Jan 18 (Reuters) - Venezuela's Mariscal Sucre project, which has estimated reserves of 14.7 trillion cubic feet of gas, has failed to attract private interest after the government invited firms to make offers last week.

Offers were to be made on Friday until midnight.

The government this month improved the conditions it was offering companies to help develop the project, but in the end nobody came forward, private sector sources close to the process said on Monday.

State oil company PDVSA has yet to announce the results.

Last year PDVSA invited a group of companies including Japan's Marubeni (8002.T), Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Itochu, Norway's Statoil (STL.OL), Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI (ENI.MI) to consider taking part in the project.

Spain's Repsol (REP.MC) had also shown interest but did not make an offer.

PDVSA forecasts that the field will produce 1.2 billion cubic feet per day. (Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by James Dalgleish)