Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that his country is planning to sign an agreement with Russia’s Lukoil on joint oil recovery by the end of the current year, Itar-Tass reports. President Chavez held a conversation with Lukoil representative in Venezuela Sergei Sipunov in a live television broadcast.
The Lukoil official told the president about the final stage of the company work on quantitative evaluation and international certification of oil deposits in the Junin-3 block of the Orinoco River oil belt. According to preliminary data, 235 billion barrels of heavy and super heavy oil are deposited in the world's largest Orinoco basin.
The Venezuelan president positively assessed the activities of the Russian company and noted that at the end of the current year the state oil and natural gas corporation Petroleos de Venezuela is planning to create a joint venture with Lukoil in order to recover oil in this block. Chavez stressed that during his visit to Russia in June this year he discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin issues related to the expansion of bilateral cooperation in the oil sphere.