Putin, Chavez to discuss joint oil production

MOSCOW, September 10 (Itar-Tass) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will
meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday to discuss
implementation of major joint projects in the sphere of energy, the
ore-mining industry, engineering, petrochemistry and high technologies.
Besides, the negotiators are expected to discuss also cooperation in
the sphere of peaceful atom as well as in the car industry.
The talks are planned also to examine financing of joint projects,
such as development of the oil block Hunin-6 where it is planned to
recover 400,000 barrels of crude daily.
To develop this deposit, the countries set up a joint venture with the
participation of a subsidiary of the Petroleos de Venezuela and the
Russian National Oil Consortium which includes leading Russian fuel and
energy companies (Gazprom represented by Gazpromneft, Rosneft, LUKOIL,
TNK-BP and Surgutneftegaz). According to estimates of the Venezuelan side,
development of the Hunin-6 block with an area of 447.7 square kilometres
will enable the joint venture to produce 400,000 barrels of super-heavy
oil daily during 25 years.
The project is likely to be funded by a specially established
Russian-Venezuelan bank, called upon to accompany such projects.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said that "this bank can
really act as the basis for future cooperation between Venezuela and
Russia; it will help to finance joint projects and joint programmes".
"This is a good start and a good prospect for future trade and economic
relations with Venezuela," he said with confidence.
Cooperation in the military-technical sphere traditionally connects
Russia and Venezuela. For instance contracts to the tune of 4.4 billion US
dollars were signed over the past three years. Russia will deliver
multifunctional Su-30 MKV fighters, helicopters Mi-17, Kalashnikov
submachinguns. There is also a contract to build a factory for production
of these submachineguns under a license.
Russia now examines the question on a delivery of big batch of tanks
for the Venezuelan army. Russian vice-premier Igor Sechin, heading the
Russian part of the bilateral intergovernmental commission, noted
"military-technical cooperation is of great importance for the Russian
economy, since it helps to award orders to national enterprises".
"Under conditions of the world economic crisis, we are duty-bound to
think of supporting our enterprises," he added.
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