Russia, Venezuela sign oil supply agreement

Last Updated on Monday, 17 November 2014, 22:17 by GxMedia

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (EFE).- Russia closed a deal withVenezuela Monday to purchase 1.6 million tons of oil and nine tons of petrolueum derivates from the Latin American country over the next five years.

The agreement was between Russia’s government-owned Rosneft oil company and its Venezuelan counterpart, PDVSA.

Present at Monday’s signing ceremony was Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez, who arrived last Saturday in Moscow for negotiations with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin regarding the falling price of oil.

According to Russian news agencies, Sechin said “I would like to emphasize the growing volume of cooperation between Russia andVenezuelain the oil sector. I thank the Vice-president and Minister of Foreign Affairs ofVenezuelaRafael Ramirez and the new Head of PDVSA, Eulogio del Pino, for their support in the implementation of new projects”.

This was the second contract signed between the two companies to provide Russia with Venezuelan oil. The first dates from May 2014 covering the same period of time and in it, Russia agrees to purchase 1.6 million tons of oil in addition to 7.5 million tons of derivatives.

Rosneft received 375,000 tons of oil derivatives under the first agreement, which obliged Russia to pay $2 million as a deposit.

Rosnet and PDVSA are operating together in five oil extraction projects inVenezuela, a country with reserves estimated at 20,500 million tons of oil.

During the visit of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to Russia last July, the two state-owned companies signed a cooperation agreement for carrying out joint projects in the Latin American country.

Meanwhile, Ramirez was set to contunue his international tour, which is aimed at seeking support from oil exporting countries to deal with the sharply falling prices of oil.

During his visit to Iran on Saturday, Ramirez said that $100 per barrel is the price desired byVenezuela, although the figure in question reached $115 per barrel in June, Iranian newsmedia reported on MondaY.