Russian
oil companies want consortium in Latin America
RIA Novosti
Caracas, Sep 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia's five major oil companies
have said they are interested in setting up a consortium to
boost operations in Latin American countries.
The oil firms which have come up with the idea are Rosneft,
LUKoil, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP.
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who chairs the board of
state-controlled Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, said:
"It would be strange for Russia, which shares first place
in global oil production with the Saudis, not to interact,
say, with Venezuela, which holds fifth or sixth place."
"The idea of creating a consortium comprising almost
all the large Russian oil companies came from the companies
themselves, which would like to work in Venezuela, and not
only here," Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who chairs
the board of state-controlled Rosneft, Russia's largest oil
company, said Wednesday.
Sechin was addressing a press conference here summing up his
working visit to Cuba and Venezuela.
"It would be strange for Russia, which shares first place
in global oil production with the Saudis, not to interact,
say, with Venezuela, which holds fifth or sixth place,"
he said.
Sechin said Russia is increasing its cooperation with Latin
American countries in several areas.
He said a consortium would make it easier to build upgrading
facilities to improve the non-conventional or heavy oil of
Venezuelan. The construction of an upgrader would cost up
to $6.5 billion, which would be hard for one company to finance,
but a consortium could share the expenditure, he said.
Venezuela has around 87 billion barrels of proven conventional
oil reserves. In addition, it has vast non-conventional oil
deposits. Most of these deposits are located in the Orinoco
oil belt.
Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA signed a deal with
Russian energy giant Gazprom this year to evaluate and certify
the Ayacucho-3 oil fields in the Orinoco belt. LUKoil signed
a memorandum of understanding and an agreement with the company
on joint exploration in the Junin-3 area, also in the Orinoco
belt.
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