Medvedev to float Orinoco pact
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss the creation of a joint consortium to further develop the Orinoco heavy oil belt during a visit to Caracas on Wednesday, Alexander Medvedev, the deputy head of gas giant Gazprom, said.
"The consortium will be the main theme (of energy talks in Caracas),” Alexander Medvedev told reporters on Saturday.
"We hope certain agreements on this will be reached," he added. Medvedev was speaking on the fringes of the summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Community (Apec) summit in the Peruvian capital Lima.
The Russian president will fly to Venezuela after taking part in the Apec summit and visiting Brazil.
The consortium has been discussed by five Russian energy companies - Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil, TNK-BP and Surgut - and Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA. But some analysts have said the recent plunge in oil prices could make it less lucrative.
Alexander Medvedev said the final decision on creating the consortium would follow the singing of an intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Venezuela, which is now in works. He gave no details, Reuters reported.
The Russian president will also visit Cuba, where Russian companies could soon start exploring for oil in the country’s territorial waters.
Russia’s ambassador to Cuba, Mijail Kamynin, told the Associated Press that Russian companies had “concrete project” for drilling in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico off Cuba.
Kamynin also said the companies, which he did not name, would help to expand and modernize infrastructure on the island, which has for decades suffered from the effects of a US trade embargo.
Cuba has however signed joint exploration deals with companies from several countries, most notably Brazilian deep-water specialist Petrobras, to explore areas which the country claims could hold up to 20 billion barrels of oil, the Assiociated Press said.