VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and talks of energy deals
Record ID:
860616
VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and talks of energy deals
- Title: VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and talks of energy deals
- Date: 19th December 2006
- Summary: PRESIDENTS STANDING TO ATTENTION IN FRONT OF THE PALACE AND LISTENING TO THE VENEZUELAN NATIONAL ANTHEM SOLDIERS AND MILITARY BAND PLAYING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM PRESIDENTS AND ENTOURAGE ENTERING THE PALACE
- Embargoed: 3rd January 2007 12:00
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- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA4RDKI6S44758YZW9MNRL6RDFM
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- Story Text: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez welcomed the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the Caracas presidential palace on Monday (December 18).
The Malaysian leader was received on the steps of the palace where he and Chavez listened to the Venezuelan national anthem and watched a military parade, before retiring to the palace to start talks.
The two-day visit by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries especially in terms of trade and energy cooperation.
Chavez gave a short statement to the media after his meeting with the Malaysian Prime Minister where he emphasized the possible oil deals that could be signed during the visit.
"Oil. Oil - tomorrow, we are going to sign - we are going to the Orinoco belt (where there are large oil deposits). We want Petronas (the Malaysian state oil company) to come, to invest and to participate in (the exploitation) of the Orinoco belt. We are studying the possibility of building a refinery as a joint venture between PDVSA (the Venezuelan state oil company) and Petronas there in Malaysia, which, as you know, look at the map is the heart of Southeast Asia," he said.
More details are expected to emerge on the deals on Tuesday (December 19). The discussions came on the back of an offer that Chavez has made to build an oil refinery and pipeline in Nicaragua, once his leftist ally Daniel Ortega becomes president in January.
Under the deal Nicaragua's new energy company Albanic, which is a joint venture between Nicaragua's Sandinista municipalities and Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA, would build a 150,000 barrel per day capacity refinery.
The plan would also see PDVSA invest in a pipeline across Nicaragua, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, providing a route for Venezuela to export its oil to China, Japan and the U.S. Pacific coast.
The deals pending with Nicaragua and Malaysia belong to a string of similar accords the anti-American Venezuelan leader has made with friendly nations worldwide to counter U.S. hegemony.
Venezuela is the world's No. 5 exporter of crude oil. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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