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Russian oil corporation to work on new projects in Venezuela

Rosneft is one of the largest overseas partners of the Venezuelan corporation and the Venezuelan side calls Sechin a big friend of the country

© ITAR-TASS/Ivan Zhuravlev

MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and the Russian oil corporation Rosneft are expected to sign an agreement on joint development of new projects in Venezuela on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), a high-rank source at the Venezuelan company told TASS.

"Several important agreements will be signed in order to boost cooperation between our two countries and companies," the source said. "The agreements are linked to new projects in Venezuela and to the training courses for the PDVSA and Rosneft workers."

He also said PDVSA CEO and President Eulogio del Pino would visit St Petersburg to take part in the forum and to meet with Rosneft President Igor Sechin.

"Rosneft is one of the main partners for PDVSA and we hope this partnership will gain more strength in the future," the source said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said after a meeting with Igor Sechin in Caracas at the end of May Rosneft would invest $ 14 billion in oil projects in Venezuela.

The PDVSA said earlier it was considering a total investment of $ 144 billion in the period of up to 2020 in development of oil-rich sands in the Orinoco River basin.

At present, the two corporations are taking part in five joint upstream projects in Venezuela. Rosneft’s assessments put the combined reserves of these projects at more than 20.5 billion tons of crude oil.

Rosneft is one of the largest overseas partners of the Venezuelan corporation and the Venezuelan side calls Sechin a big friend of the country.

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