12:56, 24 December 2009 | GMT +5
Venezuela, Belarus invest $8 bln in joint oil exploration
MEXICO. December 24. KAZINFORM Belarus and Venezuela have agreed to invest $8 billion in joint development and production at the Junin-1 oil deposit in the Orinoco River Basin, the Venezuelan oil and energy minister said; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

The agreement, which also envisions the construction of a heavy oil refinery in the region, was reached during a meeting of a high-level intergovernmental commission on Wednesday in Caracas.
Rafael Ramirez said the Junin 1 deposit contains an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil and could produce up to 200,000 barrels per day.
Venezuela is one of the largest oil producing countries in the world, with about 87 billion barrels of proven conventional oil reserves as of 2008. In addition, it has massive non-conventional oil deposits (heavy crude). Most of these deposits are located in the Orinoco oil belt; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.
See www.en.rian.ru for full version