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Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez (r), and Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, exchange folders after signing agreements in Caracas, Venezuela. [AP]
Igor Sechin, chief executive of Rosneft said the company is to invest $10 billion in Venezuela in the coming years, beginning with the Mariscal Sucre gas project off the coast.
The investment is part of a larger $17.6-billion Russian commitment to expand energy sector cooperation with Venezuela.
“We’ll finance the works with loans from Russian banks and credit lines from international banks,” Sechin told reporters on Tuesday.
Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez said that Caracas plans to add nearly $30 billion to Russia’s financial commitment for a joint fund of nearly $47 billion.
According to the Associated Press quoting Ramirez “the state oil company PDVSA currently produces about 230,000 barrels of oil a day in joint projects with Russian companies”.
Caracas hopes to increase that amount five-fold over the next decade.
Russian involvement in Venezuela’s energy sector extends to Moscow’s help in building the South American country’s first nuclear power plant. In 2010, Moscow said it would help Caracas move away from its full dependence on oil for energy.
Source: Agencies
