Russian oil company Rosneft and Venezuela's PDVSA have signed a series of agreements to work more closely together.
The two firms have agreed to establish a joint venture that will provide engineering and construction services in the oil and gas industry. This business will focus on the installation of petroleum and other infrastructure facilities for other joint ventures between Rosneft and PDVSA.
Five oil production projects in Venezuela, with estimated total oil-in-place reserves of over 20.5 billion tons, are jointly operated by Rosneft and PDVSA.
According to Rosneft, the new collaboration will enable faster development of infrastructure for its Venezuelan assets and will significantly enhance the efficiency of managing these assets.
The Russian and Venezuelan companies have also signed a cooperation agreement to implement offshore projects in the Rio-Caribe and Mejillones blocks (Phase II of the Mariscal Sucre Project). The parties plan to continue negotiations for an agreement on key technical requirements, commercial and legal terms for potential joint ventures to develop these two blocks. They have also held negotiations on LNG plant construction.
Rosneft and PDVSA will extend the Petrovictoria JV Establishment and Operation Agreement and continue the Carabobo-2 project entry bonus agreement.
In addition, the two companies have agreed to arrange petroleum industry training for Venezuelan citizens in Rosneft partner universities.
The agreements were signed by Igor Sechin, Rosneft's president and chairman, and Rafael Ramirez, the Venezuelan minister of Petroleum and Mining and president of PDVSA.
