MINSK, 5 October (BelTA) – Venezuela intends to expand cooperation with Belarus in oil industry, BelTA learned from Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino on 5 October.
The official said: “We have most excellent relations with Belarusian specialists. We recognize their high technological standards. We would like to advance to a new stage of cooperation, a more active and broader one.”
Belarus and Venezuela have cooperated in oil industry for a long time. The Belarusian-Venezuelan oil and gas extraction joint venture Petrolera BeloVenezolana has been working in Venezuela since 2007, with seven oil fields and six gas fields in development.
Since 2009 Petrolera BeloVenezolana has been working with Belorusneft's oil industry research institute BelNIPIneft. Belorusneft's strategic goal in the region is to improve the effectiveness of extraction of oil and natural gas by assimilating new extraction techniques and by wisely selecting production enhancement operations.
The volume of oil the Belarusian-Venezuelan joint venture extracts has dropped in the last few years. Additional investments are required to further develop the joint venture, BelTA learned from Alexander Lyakhov, Director General of the Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft. “If the financial, economic, and technological life of the company is properly tuned, it will have a good future,” believes Alexander Lyakhov.
