Venezuela Oil Firm to Join Dung Quat Refinery Expansion

President of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Dinh La Thang, and Venezuelan Minister for Energy and Petroleum and President of the Venezuelan State Oil Company PDVSA, Rafael Ramirez, recently signed agreements on oil and gas cooperation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

 

Under the agreements, PDVSA will involve in expanding the Dung Quat oil refinery in Vietnam to refine 100,000 barrels of oil per day taken from the Junin 2 Block in Orinoco Oil Belt, Venezuela - the world's largest oil reserve. This block, covering 248 square kilometres, is estimated to have a reserve of 7.5 billion barrels of crude oil, which is operated by Petromacareo, a joint venture company between PetroVietnam and PDVSA.

 

Petromacareo is scheduled to start commercial production at Junin 2 from the third quarter of 2012 with a daily capacity of 50,000 barrels, which is expected to be quadrupled after two years.

 

The two sides also discussed three potential cooperation agreements, including PetroVietnam's assistance to PDVSA in product distribution in Asia.

 

 Hong Hanh