MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela anticipates oil sales to China of a million bpd in 2012

China and Venezuela signed on Wednesday in Beijing a wide range of agreements to boost trade, energy cooperation and agriculture and in other fields. The agreements were signed by Chinese Vice Premier Li Kegiang and visiting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Li said China was interested in facilitating economic and technology exchanges with Venezuela and strengthen cooperation in areas such as energy, agriculture and infrastructure. Chavez said that following on the agreement his country's oil sales to China could soar to over a million barrels per day by 2012, helping Venezuela to diversify markets. In comments broadcast on state television in Venezuela, Chavez said Venezuela's oil exports to China would increase to almost 500,000 barrels a day next year. That figure could reach 1 million barrels a day within four years, he said. The sides also plan to construct three oil refineries in China capable of processing Venezuela's heavy sulfur-laden crude and build four oil tankers. "While the world enters an energy crisis, we are investing," Chavez said. The outspoken US critic regards China as a key link in his strategy of diversifying Venezuela's oil sales away from the US, which still buys about half of Venezuela's oil despite years of political tensions. Since last April Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, PDVSA, crude sales to China have soared to 250,000 bpd. Other plans call for building a refinery in Venezuela and launching a joint oil development project in the crude-rich Orinoco River belt and for China to supply Venezuela with oil tankers. Venezuela's Presidential Office also issued a statement in praise of the upcoming launch of the VENESAT-1 satellite that will transmit telephone, Internet, video conferencing and other signals throughout the region from the Caribbean to Paraguay. More than 100 Venezuelans have been trained in China to operate the satellite, the office said. "We will have a tool allowing us to say that there are no borders, or places in our region we cannot reach," the statement quoted Science and Technology Minister Nuris Orihuela, who was accompanying Chavez on his visit, as saying. The satellite, also known as Simon Bolivar will be launched on November first from western China's Xichang launch site aboard a Chinese Long March 3B rocket.