Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Caracas backs Russian oil work

|
|
 
  
Published: Feb. 9, 2012 at 7:27 AM
Advertisement

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Venezuelan government gave the go-ahead for the development of the Orinoco oil belt through a joint venture between Russia and a state oil company.

A subsidiary of Gazprom in Latin America takes a 40 percent stake in a program with a division of Venezuela's state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, known by its initials PDVSA.

The venture will work on 21,236 square miles in the Orinoco oil belt, Venezuelan newspaper El Universal reports.

Russian state-run oil company Rosneft last year signed a memorandum of understanding to help develop Orinoco, one of the biggest oil fields off Venezuela's coast.

The Venezuelan government in 2007 ordered international oil companies to transform production agreements into ones that made them minority shareholders with PDVSA in the Orinoco belt. The government is locked in a court battle with Exxon Mobil over that decision.

Venezuela has some of the largest deposits of crude oil. The Orinoco belt is considered one of the biggest reserve fields outside of the Middle East and Venezuela.

Moscow in 2010 paid more than half of the $1 billion for work in the Junin-6 block in the oil belt.

Topics: Petroleos de Venezuela
Recommended Stories
© 2012 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Protesters, police clash at NATO summit Notable deaths of 2012 2012 Billboard Music Awards
The 137th Preakness Stakes Annual Solar eclipse occurs in U.S. Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S.
Additional Energy Resources Stories
1 of 29
Members of the Army's Old Guard place flags at Arlington National Ceremtery
View Caption
U.S. flags are seen in the rucksack of a soldier with the Army's 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard, as he places flags at gravesites in Arlington National Cemetery as part of the Flags-In Memorial Day ceremony on May 24, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. American flags were placed at each of the more than 220,000 grave markers in honor of those who served and Memorial Day. UPI/Kevin Dietshc
fark
Never seen early photos of the American West, AKA, at time when Americans had spirit, guts and balls...
Armstrong. Collarbone, not so much
Some people write "wash me" on dirty cars. Then there's this guy
Old news: Nebraska man convicted of driving while drunk and naked, with truck full of naked passengers....
One Million Moms is not pleased with Marvel and DC's homosexual comic book characters, sees no reason...
Woman complains her husband needs porn on TV to get him in the mood for sex - without once describing...