Venezuela and Russia Reach $14 Billion Oil and Gas Deal

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro concluded an agreement with Russia's state-owned Rosneft that will see an additional $14 billion in investment in the South American country's oil and gas industry over the coming years. 

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Caracas, May 28, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro concluded an agreement with Russia’s state-owned Rosneft that will see an additional $14 billion in investment in the South American country’s oil and gas industry over the coming years. 
The move was announced by the socialist leader on Wednesday following a meeting he convened between the president of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, Eulogio de Pino, and Rosneft president Igor Sechin. 
“We had a great meeting and agreed on investment of over $14 billion,” declared Maduro in a television address from Miraflores palace. 
The new investment will reportedly go towards further developing Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt in the country’s northeast, which is home to some of the worlds largest reserves of crude oil and already contains 250 oil fields. PDVSA aims to double Venezuela’s oil output to 6 million barrels a day by 2019, four million of which are to come from the Orinoco Belt. 
Rosneft has been active in Venezuela’s oil and gas sector since reaching a 2012 deal with PDVSA for $16 billion in investment in the development of the Carabobo 2 oil field in the southern part of the Orinoco Belt. The Russian oil giant signed a new agreement with the Venezuelan government in 2014 that saw new investment over a five year period. 
Venezuela and Russia “Victims of Unconventional War”
Speaking from the 9th meeting of the High Level Intergovernmental Commission in Moscow, Venezuelan foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez expressed her solidarity with Russia, affirming that both Venezuela and Russia “have become victims of unconventional war”. 
“We are convinced that we share the same idea about what is occuring on the global level. Just as the Soviets did their best to overcome the Nazis, today Russia is battling with all its strength to navigate a new geopolitical power structure that permits it to reduce the hegemony and expansionism of imperialism.”