OREANDA-NEWS. Rafael Ramirez, People’s Minister of Petroleum and Mining and president of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. – PDVSA, said at a press conference in Caracas, that business is consolidating between the Venezuelan state oil company and the Russian Oil Consortium (Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom, TNK-BP). Soon they will be visited by a Russian delegation headed by Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s president.

Minister Ramirez announced the recent transfer of the stake that TNK-BP had in the joint venture Petromonagas, to Rosneft. “We’ll go through a transfer of those rights of Petromonagas to Rosneft”, he said.

The president of PDVSA talked about the creation of the joint venture Petrovictoria last October with Rosneft and denied the media controversy over presumed disagreements among some partners planning to withdraw their investments in the country and PDVSA. He stated that “all the companies are here, we are working”.

The energy minister stressed the validity of the Full Oil Sovereignty policy which was applied in 2007 when disagreements led to the nationalization of several companies.

Petrocaribe to receive payment proposals

Ramirez announced that in the next Petrocaribe meeting, which will take place in February in Venezuela, they will propose payment mechanisms to recover resources more directly.

He said that with these mechanisms “we are trying to introduce in a more active way, Venezuelan products in Central America and the Caribbean through Petrocaribe”.

When asked about the alleged debt that PDVSA has with its suppliers, Minister Ramirez said that in the year 2012 PDVSA paid its suppliers more than 15 billion dollars approximately.