OREANDA-NEWS. May 28, 2012. The Colombian-Venezuelan oil pipeline will transport to the Pacific Ocean more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil extracted in the Orinoco Oil Belt (FPO) and in the developing areas of Colombia, said the People's Minister for Oil and Mining and President of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Rafael Ramirez, when he left the III South American Energy Council held in Caracas.

The owner of Oil and Mining said that in the bilateral meeting with his Colombian counterpart, Mauricio Cardenas, agreed to work together with China, as a strategic partner in energy.

He added that with the delegation of New Granada it was talked of a set of strategic projects for interconnecting gas, electricity, oil transportation, refining capacity of crude oil and petrochemicals.

Minister Ramirez said that talks between the Colombian delegations also was addressed the meeting to be held this year in Arauca, to give continuity to the operations of gas to Colombia.

Oil market

He was asked about the agenda of the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in June.  The Minister said that the Venezuelan position is reaffirmed that there is an oversupply of oil on the market, generated from all destabilization in the region of the Persian Gulf and the Arab world, which causes some countries to increase their production levels to alleviate the situation.

In this regard, he said, "We've said to the OPEC general secretary, that it is important to make a strict adherence to production ceiling of 30 million barrels of oil.  At the Next meeting we will insist on respecting the agreements, because we see as a threat to the stability of oil market the crises of the euro area and U.S., so it can cause destruction of demand, this coupled with the issue of threats and political situations in the Middle East.  "

He therefore held that the correct measure for members of OPEC is to restrict oil supply levels already approved even he stated that it must withdraw the excess and then would examine the market situation and calculate whether the 30 million barrels could be revised downwards.

Regarding the distribution of fuel to the Arab Republic of Syria, the head of the office of Oil and Mining said that there is an excellent relationship between Venezuela and the legitimate government of that country, so it is willing to support that nation and that to date there have been three shipments of diesel.

Finally, he said that the III South American Energy Council was a historic meeting and it is complying with the chiefs and heads of state of the block.  "Since the creation of UNASUR in 2007, it has placed the energy issue as a cornerstone of the integration of the South, which has the largest reserve of natural resources of the planet and the largest reserve of oil and gas”.