ONGC Videsh inks pact with Venezuela's PDVSA

New Delhi, Apr 9 (UNI) ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Petroleos De Venezuela S A (PDVSA) signed a formal agreement in which the Indian upstream major will have 40 per cent participating interest in the joint venture for developing San Cristobal Oil Field in Junin, Orinoco region of Venezuela.

This JV agreement was concluded at an ceremony in the presence of Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and his Venezuela counterpart Rafael Ramirez Carreno.

Under the agreement signed last night, the companies will jointly develop the field from its current production level of 20,000 bbl per day to 40,000 bbl per day.

To strengthen the cooperation between ONGC Videsh and Petroleos, a memorandum of understanding was also signed to jointly develop oil and gas exploration and production projects.

OVL is a 100 per cent subsidiary of India's leading national oil company ONGC.

Indian government has recently approved OVL's participation in the project with an investment of 356 million dollars.

Venezuela is one of the largest oil producing countries in the world with about 87 billion barrels of proven conventional oil reserves (OPEC 2006).

Besides, it has a huge non-conventional oil deposits (heavy oil), most of which are located in the Orinoco oil belt.

UNI MP SG DS1455