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Venezuela set to build first oil rig with China: report

Caracas: Venezuela is poised to begin building the first joint Venezuelan-Chinese oil drilling platform in June, according to Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez. “The oil drilling platform is at a very advanced stage in the (western) Orinoco Belt,” Ramirez told the Panorama newspaper, from the northwestern city of Maracaibo, on Monday. “In June ... Venezuela will assemble the first oil rig with Venezuelan labor.” Run through a joint venture between Venezuelan Petroleum (PDVSA) with a 60 percent stake, and China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) with a 40 percent stake, the oil rig will maintain 24 active teams equipped with “the latest technology,” Ramirez said. There are currently 276 active oil rigs in Venezuela, 51 of which are owned by PDVSA and the rest are run by contractors. Seventeen others are undergoing maintenance and four are inactive due to cuts agreed with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the newspaper said. “We hope that in a few years, we can assume control of all oil rigs in the country,” Ramirez said. The planned oil rig assembly is the second stage of a 2007 deal under which China agreed to build 13 high-tech oil-drilling platforms that can drill 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) deep. The third stage anticipates manufacturing and maintaining oil wells in Venezuela. In 2007, PDVSA said it was investing 3.5 billion dollars in building and maintaining oil rigs through 2012. During his last visit to Beijing in April, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez discussed the possibility of constructing a refinery in the country, capable of processing 400,000 barrels at day. China buys 300,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude every day, and is eager for more from the Latin American country as part of its global quest for a diverse range of energy supplies. The majority of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves — which PDVSA estimates at 3.01 million barrels a day, but the International Energy Agency places at 2.33 million barrels a day — are destined for markets in the United States. Venezuela has proven oil reserves of around 99 billion barrels and is the Western hemisphere’s largest oil exporter. afp

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