31.07.09 - 11:12 -
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez touted improved energy cooperation with Spain after several bilateral accords were signed during a visit by Spain's top diplomat.
The socialist president said after new contracts were signed with oil company Repsol YPF and electric utility Iberdrola that Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos' three-day visit - which ended Wednesday with the ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace - was "very important, very timely, refreshing and fortifying" and that he welcomes other similar agreements.
Moratinos, for his part, expressed to Chávez Spain's commitment to creating a "solid and strategic" relationship and its desire that their countries work together to promote peace and stability in Latin America.
In one agreement, Repsol YPF signed a deal with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for the latter to supply 1.38 million barrels of crude per year, with 1 million of the total to be refined in Spain and the remainder in Peru.
Repsol also signed four other agreements to consolidate its position in Latin America's leading oil-producing nation, including a pact allowing Repsol YPF to join PDVSA in exploring for oil in the Junin 7 Block of Venezuela's Orinoco Belt.
The companies say that block could hold as many as 31 billion barrels of oil.
Meanwhile, the Spanish companies Iberinco - the engineering unit of Spanish power utility Iberdrola - and Elecnor signed a deal to build a combined-cycle gas turbine for PDVSA in eastern Venezuela.
The roughly $2 billion, 1,000 MW project is 60 pe rcent owned by Iberinco and 40 per cent owned by Elecnor, Iberdrola said in a press release.
During the ceremony at the presidential palace, a technical cooperation accord also was signed for a rail line in eastern Caracas, while Chávez proposed the countries work together on more projects in areas such as wind energy and home construction.
A commission also was formally created to resolve cases in which properties owned by Spanish residents in Venezuela have been expropriated, as Moratinos had announced Tuesday after a meeting with Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.
Chávez said Moratinos conveyed the well-wishes of King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and added that he received those greetings "with great affection" and looks forward to their visiting Venezuela.
Chávez and the king had a run-in during a Ibero-American Summit meeting in late 2007, when Juan Carlos told the outspoken head of state to "shut up" and stop insulting a conservative former Spanish prime minister, but they patched up their differences when Chávez visited the Iberian nation last year.
