Vietnam and Venezuela have recently clinched eight cooperation agreements to boost ties in various fields, especially in oil and gas exploration, production, oil refining and electricity sectors, state media reported.
Petroleos de Venezuela S.A (PDVSA) will open a representative office in Hanoi soon to accelerate cooperation with Vietnam National Oil & Gas Group (PetroVietnam), said Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.
Addressing the first meeting of Vietnam-Venezue Joint Committee in Caracas, Mr. Chavez emphasized that PetroVietnam is joining accessing reserve of Junin 2 oilfield on the Orinoco strip, the world oil-richest area.
He said the two countries will soon set up an oil refining joint venture in Vietnam to refine oil produced from the Junin 2 oilfield with a reserve of 49 billion barrels.
In order to reduce costs, the two sides plan to establish a line shipping joint venture to develop a specialized oil tanker fleet to transport crude oil material for the aforementioned refinery, the Venezuela’s president elaborated.
According to Venezuela’s news agency, ABN, Vietnam will speed up cooperation with Venezuelan partners to build an energy-saving light bulb production plant in the Latin American country to feed the nation’s demand as well as countries in Caribe and Central American regions.
PetroVietnam has so far poured more than US$226 million into 21 projects overseas, with nearly 90 per cent of the investment going to development and exploitation and the rest to exploration, mainly in Myanmar, Cambodia, Egypt, Tunisia, India, Angola, and Cameroon.
The group is boosting cooperation with foreign partners to complete its target of producing between 16.2 million and16.3 million tons this year. (VietNamNet, VNA)
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