The Moron continues to incentive alliances between any and all of his created enemies

Venezuela and Iran to Join on $4 Billion Oil Project

By Steven Bodzin

July 10 (Bloomberg) — Venezuela and Iran, oil-exporting countries that have sought to assert independence from the U.S., plan to spend a combined $4 billion on a joint project in Venezuela's heavy-crude-producing Faja del Orinoco.

Iranian companies also will build four Aframax tankers and offshore oil rigs, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Venezuela's state oil producer, said today in a statement. Offshore rigs should be in place in the Gulf of Venezuela by the end of this year, Petroleos de Venezuela said in the statement.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is increasingly working with state oil producers from other countries after seizing control of heavy-oil ventures in the Faja from international oil companies. The country needs to increase drilling to prove and develop heavy-oil reserves in the region estimated at 260 billion barrels.

The $4 billion investment in the Ayacucho 7 block, which has about 31 billion barrels of oil, rivals the scale of Sincor, a $4.2 billion joint venture of Total SA, Statoil ASA and Petroleos de Venezuela that produces light, low-sulfur crude from the region's tarry deposits.

Production from Ayacucho 7 should begin in about two years, Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's oil and energy minister, said in the statement from Petroleos de Venezuela.

Venezuela and Iran also will form a joint company for projects in other countries, according to the statement. Luis Vierma, Petroleos de Venezuela's vice president for exploration and production, said June 12 that his company may explore for oil and natural gas in Vietnam, Bolivia and Argentina.

Venezuelan leaders also have met in the past three months with energy ministers from Sudan and Myanmar, which are seeking foreign investment in oil and gas production.

Original article posted here.