The director of the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation, Pedro Leon, and his counterpart from the Russian National Oil Consortium, Valery Rusakov, signed in the presence of the Minister of Energy and Petroleum and President of Petroleos de Venezuela, Rafael Ramirez and the head of the Russian government, Vladimir Putin, the contract for the formation of a joint venture whose objective is the joined exploitation of the Junin Block 6 of the Orinoco Oil Belt.

Junin Block 6 covers some 448 square kilometers, its reserves have been estimated at 52.7 billion barrels of oil originally in place (OOIP) and its production is estimated at 450 thousand barrels per day of upgraded crude by 2017. The investments planned for its development add up to 18 thousand million dollars.

This is the first time in history that two oil giants, Venezuela and Russia join forces together to produce large volumes of oil and this initiative takes shape in time when it materializes significant offers from other companies in Block Carabobo and by Italian company ENI in Junin block 5, both in the Orinoco Oil Belt, the largest deposit of hydrocarbons on the planet, said Ramirez.

"Today we conclude the work started a year ago to create the conditions for the joint exploitation of Junin 6, one of the largest oilfields in the world. This is the beginning of an important joint venture and I'm sure it will bring the respective dividends to our Venezuelan colleagues and their Russian partners, "Putin said.

The above mentioned joint venture will consist of PDVSA, which will own 60% of the shares and the Russian consortium consisting of Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, TNK-BP and Surgoutneftgaz, owning the remaining 40%.

It is worth noting that the Russian society must pay an entry bond of a thousand million dollars to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and that this project will be submitted to the National Assembly for the authorization approval, in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Law of Hydrocarbons.