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Saturday, Mar 05, 2005

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Venezuela to sign energy pact

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH. 4. Venezuela, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is set to sign an energy cooperationagreement with India for joint production of oil and supply of petroleum on a long-term basis.

Revealing this during an interactive meeting with Indian business leaders organised by FICCI and CII here today, the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez Frias, said: "I have had wide-ranging discussions with Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, and tomorrow [March 5, 2005], I will sign an MoU with the Indian Prime Minister on energy cooperation."

After recently signing oil sales agreements with China, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, Mr. Chavez is expected to sign supply contracts in India, Asia's third largest oil consumer.

Heavy crude oil

The energy cooperation agreement with India will extend to pacts for exploitation of India's heavy crude oil as "we have the right technology for converting heavy oils into light crude for use in refineries," Mr. Chavez said. Venezuela was competent to meet India's import requirement of 100 million barrels of crude.

Mr. Chavez said that apart from cooperation in the oil sector, Venezuela and India were expected to enter into an MoU for tourism development and set up a high-level commission to speed up investments in oil and tourism sectors.

He invited Indian companies and investors to set up joint ventures in Venezuela in the fields of science and technology, medicines, roads, airports, ports and housing.

The Minister of State for External Affairs, Rao Inderjit Singh, said India's achievements in hi-tech application and low-end and appropriate technologies in the fields of housing, agriculture, rural development, small-scale industries, education, railways, space science, biotechnology and information technology could be of relevance to Venezuela's development.

India would be happy to establish partnership with Venezuela in these areas.

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