Venezuela and India teamed up on Tuesday for exploration and production of oil and natural gas in eastern Venezuela.
State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, will hold a 60 per cent stake in the joint venture, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said. The rest will be controlled by Oil and Natural Gas Corp, or ONGC, India's top petroleum exploration company.
Ramirez said ONGC will invest $450 million (euro290 million) in the project, known as Petrolera IndoVenezolana.
Venezuela estimates that over the next 25 years, the venture will yield 232 million barrels of crude from the San Cristobal oil field, which spans 62 square miles (160 square kilometers) in the eastern states of Anzoategui and Guarico. Production is expected to begin within three years.
Ramirez said the agreement is ``a first step'' toward further energy cooperation between the two countries, saying that Venezuela plans to ship 150,000 barrels of heavy crude a day to India.
``This agreement falls into the framework of our diversification policy,'' Ramirez said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long expressed a desire to reduce dependence on the United States, which remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil despite rocky relations between the countries.
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