Venezuela seeks China's aid to achieve its target of achieving 7 million barrels per day oil output by 2021.
Venezuela's Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said invest more than $40 billion in country s oil- and gas-rich eastern Orinoco belt by 2016.
Ramirez said China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) would invest in oil extraction projects in the Junin 1 and Junin 8 blocs, while China National Oil Off Shore (CNOOC) would undertake gas production in the Mariscal Sucre gas fields on Venezuela's eastern shores.
"All these agreements represent at least 40 billion dollars that will be invested during a period up to 2016," Ramirez told the Gas Exporting Countries Forum ministers' meeting here.
The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is already working with PDVSA in Orinoco's Junin 4 bloc that holds a potential 400,000 bpd production.
Currently some 30 companies from more than 20 different countries are operating in the Orinoco Belt, a 55,314 square kilometer (21,360 square mile) oil reserve in the Orinoco River area.
For years experts believed that it was too expensive to extract and refine the heavy and extra-heavy oil in the area. The drop in light oil reserves and the increase in global oil prices have revived the interest among foreign investors.
These companies want some of the action even after leftist President Hugo Chavez changed investment rules in 2007 and mandated that PDVSA maintain a minimum 60-per cent stake in all Orinoco projects.
A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Venezuela is the world's second-leading crude oil producer behind Saudi Arabia. It currently extracts more than three million bpd of crude.
Venezuela's Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said invest more than $40 billion in country s oil- and gas-rich eastern Orinoco belt by 2016.
Ramirez said China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) would invest in oil extraction projects in the Junin 1 and Junin 8 blocs, while China National Oil Off Shore (CNOOC) would undertake gas production in the Mariscal Sucre gas fields on Venezuela's eastern shores.
"All these agreements represent at least 40 billion dollars that will be invested during a period up to 2016," Ramirez told the Gas Exporting Countries Forum ministers' meeting here.
The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is already working with PDVSA in Orinoco's Junin 4 bloc that holds a potential 400,000 bpd production.
Currently some 30 companies from more than 20 different countries are operating in the Orinoco Belt, a 55,314 square kilometer (21,360 square mile) oil reserve in the Orinoco River area.
For years experts believed that it was too expensive to extract and refine the heavy and extra-heavy oil in the area. The drop in light oil reserves and the increase in global oil prices have revived the interest among foreign investors.
These companies want some of the action even after leftist President Hugo Chavez changed investment rules in 2007 and mandated that PDVSA maintain a minimum 60-per cent stake in all Orinoco projects.
A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Venezuela is the world's second-leading crude oil producer behind Saudi Arabia. It currently extracts more than three million bpd of crude.
