Gazprom to Start Drilling this Year in Venezuela

Russian state-owned giant Gazprom said last Thursday that it will begin drilling this year in two blocks off the coast of Venezuela, whose vice president is in Moscow this week to promote expanded economic cooperation between the two countries.

"The firm Zarubezhneftegaz, an affiliate of Gazprom, will begin drilling in the fourth quarter of this year," said the company in a communique. Gazprom said that in 2005 Caracas granted it two licenses to prospect for hydrocarbons in the Urumaco-1 and Urumaco-2 blocks in Venezuelan territorial waters.

Zarubezhneftegaz, which has calculated there to be 100 billion cubic meters (3.4 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas in those two blocks, recently concluded its geological work on the terrain.

Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Rodriguez met on Thursday with Gazprom vice president Alexei Miller, with whom he "discussed matters related to the development of bilateral cooperation in the area of energy over the long term."

"At the meeting, (the participants) discussed the outlook for the participation of Gazprom in the construction of energy infrastructure in Venezuelan territory and also possible cooperation in other projects in the maritime region and on the continent," Gazprom said.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Russia's deputy vice prime minister assured Rodriguez in Moscow that Gazprom is interested in Caracas' plan for a natural-gas pipeline spanning much of South America.

"That 'southern ring' will unite in an energy network Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia," said Alexandr Zhukov at a meeting of the Russian-Venezuelan High Level Intergovernmental Commission, of which he and Rodriguez are co-chairmen.

The Russian official said that "the constructive dialogue between Russia and Venezuela comes accompanied by a positive dynamic in bilateral economic cooperation, above all in the energy and fuel sector," Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Russia and Venezuela are both among the world's top producers and exporters of oil.

He added that "leading Russian companies in the sector, like Gazprom and Lukoil, are already working with success in the Venezuelan market."

Zhukov and Rodriguez emphasized the importance of the first meeting held Tuesday in the Russian capital by the Russian-Venezuelan Business Council.

Zhukov said that the priority projects will be studied at the next High Level Commission meeting on Oct. 24 in Caracas, which will contribute to adding to the content of the future meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez.

He added that "active presidential diplomacy" is the main engine of the growing Russian-Venezuelan cooperation, since Chavez has already visited Russia five times and on Tuesday telephoned Putin to talk about bilateral relations and invite him to visit Venezuela.

Bilateral trade increased almost sevenfold over the past two years, from $77.5 million in 2005 to $517 million last year, although of that amount no less than $456.5 million were Russian exports to Venezuela.

That increase was due above all to military cooperation, since Venezuela in the last two years signed nearly $4 billion worth of contracts with Russia to buy 24 fighter-bombers, 50 combat and transport helicopters, air-defense systems and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

"It's time to move to a new model of cooperation, a more perfect (one), that includes an increase in industrial production, in merchandise and services in transformative industries and in cutting edge technologies in Russian and Venezuelan supplies," Zhukov said.

Among the most attractive joint projects, Zhukov emphasized the plans of the Rusal corporation to create a mixed firm to extract bauxite and produce aluminum oxide, aluminum and alloys in Venezuela, as well as the construction of a fertilizer factory.

He also mentioned the construction of the Uribante-Caparo hydroelectrical complex and the prospecting and extraction of natural gas off the western coast of Venezuela.

Source: Rigzone.com  

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