On May 22-24, Rosneft President, Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin made a working visit to Venezuela as head of the Russian delegation.

During a meeting with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua a wide range of Russian-Venezuelan trade and economic cooperation development issues was discussed.

Igor Sechin also held talks with Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez.

An agreement to create a joint venture to develop heavy oil reserves in Venezuela in the framework of the Carabobo-2 project was signed in Barcelona, Venezuela, by Rosneft and the Venezuelan Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo (CVP), a subsidiary of PDVSA. The agreement was signed by Rosneft President Igor Sechin and Venezuelan Oil Minister and PDVSA president Rafael Ramirez in the presence of the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

The enterprise's creation was approved by the National Assembly of Venezuela, the President's decree and a resolution by the Ministry of Oil and Mining industry. Rosneft’s stake in the joint venture will amount to 40%, the other 60% will be held by CVP. The Carabobo-2 project includes blocks Carabobo-2 North and Carabobo-4 West with a total area of 342 square kilometers located in the Orinoko river's heavy crude belt. Reserves at the blocks are estimated at 40 billion barrels (6.5 billion tonnes). Commercial oil production is expected to peak at over 400 thousand barrels per day (about 25 million tonnes per year).

Rosneft President said the new joint venture would be named Petrovictoria. The companies actively work on other new projects including the Venezuelan shelf, he also added.

The companies have also signed a confidentiality agreement allowing Rosneft to obtain geological data on Venezuelan offshore blocks for possible future cooperation. Earlier Rosneft and the Venezuelan company had signed a memorandum of intentions to study several gas sites on the shelf of this country.

Igor Sechin handed over to Nicolas Maduro a bronze bust of Hugo Chavez made by Russian sculptor Sergey Kazantsev, a gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Venezuelan president demonstrated it live on national TV saying this was the first bronze bust of Comandante. It will take its rightful place at the People's House - the Miraflores Presidential Palace, he said when reading Vladimir Putin's message.

Igor Sechin also visited the Hugo Chavez Memorial.

The Russian delegation included governmental officials and businessmen including representatives of Inter RAO EES, Uralmash NGO Holding, National Oil Consortium, OMZ, Gazmprom Neft, Eurofinance Mosnarbank.

Rosneft
Information Division,
May 24, 2013