Venezuela and Rosneft, Russia’s top oil producer, have struck a deal worth $14 billion in investing in the South American country's oil and gas industry.

Venezuela, Rosneft $14 billion oil and gas deal

Venezuela

CARACAS, May 28, 2015 – Venezuela and Rosneft, Russia’s top oil producer, have struck a deal worth $14 billion in investing in the South American country’s oil and gas industry. Venezuela needs investment to boost its output in order to battle its economic crisis and the recent global downturn in oil prices.

According to President Nicolas Maduro’s televised speech on Wednesday evening, he met with Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin to strike the deal to double the country’s oil production. The president did not detail how the funds will be spent.

Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company PDVSA endeavours to boost the country’s oil production by 2019 to 6 million barrels of oil per day, 4 million of which would come from the Orinoco Belt, which runs into the Caribbean and holds some of the world’s largest reserves.

In November, PDVSA and Rosneft agreed upon a contract for Venezuelan oil and oil products with supplies of more than 1.6 million tonnes of oil and 9 million tonnes of oil products to the Russian company in five years.

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