Venezuela and Spain Strengthen "Energy Alliance"

Mérida, July 30^th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - Government officials and business executives from Venezuela and Spain met in Caracas this week to sign contracts for joint oil, gas, and thermoelectricity production, and to discuss the indemnity payments for the Bank of Venezuela, which Venezuela nationalized last year. The Venezuelan government also condemned Wednesday's car bomb attack on the Spanish Civil Guard barracks. 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the meetings with Spanish Foreign Relations Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos "refreshing," and sent an "embrace from our homeland" to Spain. Moratinos said the meetings were "extremely fruitful" and would "strengthen our bilateral relations even further."

Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, signed an agreement with the international oil company Repsol-YPF to jointly extract oil from Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt. In addition, the companies signed a letter of intent to form a mixed enterprise for oil and natural gas exploration. 

Also, PDVSA purchased a thermoelectric plant in Barinas state from Repsol-YPF, and agreed to sell 1.38 million barrels of oil over the next year to be refined by Repsonl-Ypf in Spain and Peru.

With the Spanish construction and engineering firms Iberdrola and Elecnor, PDVSA signed deals to construct a new, natural gas-powered thermoelectric plant with the capacity to produce 1,000 megawatts in Cumaná, Sucre state.

Venezuelan Foreign Relations Minister Nicolas Maduro called the series of deals "a strategic alliance of the future."

Maduro also announced that a joint commission will be formed by Venezuelan and Spanish government and business officials to oversee the indemnity payments to the Spanish Santander Group, which owned Venezuela's third largest bank, Bank of Venezuela, from the 1990s until it was nationalized last August.

"The creation of this commission demonstrates the willingness of the Venezuelan government to solve these cases in a satisfactory manner for both parts," said Maduro.

According to Moratinos, the commission was created because, in the indemnity payments thus far, "there was an un-satisfactory rhythm for the interested parties."

The meetings ran from Monday through Wednesday and were dubbed the First Annual Venezuela-Spain Business Forum. Next year's forum is planned to take place in Spain.

Bombing in Spain and Coup in Honduras

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry said it "energetically condemns the terrorist attack perpetrated on Wednesday, July 29^th against the Civil Guard Barracks in Burgos, Kingdom of Spain."

The car bombing killed two police officers and left more than 60 people injured. No suspects have been arrested. The government blamed the Basque nationalist organization ETA, which will mark the 50^th anniversary of its founding this Friday.

"The Venezuelan government deplores this condemnable event and rejects the use in any way of violence and terrorist actions," the Ministry stated.

Meanwhile, Chavez congratulated the Spanish government for having condemned the June 28^th coup d'etat against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, and for having refused to recognize the coup regime that continues to rule the country by military force.

Chavez also urged the Spanish government and news media to have a "greater understanding of the process of change that is occurring in Venezuela and Latin America," which he said is "a continuation of our independence that was cut short."

Published on Jul 30th 2009 at 8.32pm