OREANDA-NEWS. October 3, 2012. State-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), signed two agreements on Tuesday in order to boost extra heavy crude oil production in Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt (FPO) and sell 400,000 bpd to the Asian country.

Rafael Ramirez, the People’s Minister for Petroleum and Mining and President of PDVSA, said that the first official document signed with the Indian company was a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will allow Reliance to participate in crude oil exploration and production activities in the Ayacucho and Boyaca 4 blocks in the FPO.

Ramirez highlighted the technical assistance that Venezuela will receive from the Indian company, which has a great expertise in the construction of refineries and has a refining capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day, of which 50 percent is made up of heavy crude oil. Reliance will also provide training in oil fields and the provision of technology for refining Venezuelan heavy crude.

Then, the Venezuelan oil minister talked about the second official document signed with the Indian oil company. PDVSA agreed to supply Venezuelan heavy crude oil to the Asian country under a 15-year contract. Venezuela will send Reliance between 300,000 and 400,000 barrels per day.

“This agreement ensures the sale of our oil to countries that have a sustainable growth,” Ramirez stressed. He also said that Venezuela is currently sending 270,000 bpd to the Asian country, while India’s oil consumption currently amounts to 4.2 million barrels of crude oil per day.

In this regard, P.M.S. Prasad, executive vice president at Reliance Industries Limited, expressed his view about the partnership between the two countries: “Our firm will continue to strengthen relations between Venezuela and India, a country with 1.2 billion people and constantly growing energy needs,” he added.

After the signing of this oil delivery agreement, Venezuela will exports 820,000 barrels per day of fuel oil to Asia, after taking into account oil sales to Japan and China.

With the signing of these new agreements, Venezuela strengthens its technological sovereignty, operational independence and market diversification after doing business with highly recognized oil industries.