Venezuela plans to more than triple its oil exports to China over the next five years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said ahead of a meeting Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
"On the whole, production will increase in such a way that we will manage to export half a million crude barrels [a day to China] in the five next years," Chavez told Venezuelan state television in an interview broadcast overnight.
Venezuela, the fifth-biggest exporter of oil in the world, currently delivers 150,000 barrels per day to China, compared with 1.5 million barrels it exports to the US.
Chavez, one of the world's most prominent critics of the US, repeated his intentions to make China one of his nation's biggest markets, and so lessen Venezuela's economic dependence on Washington.
"We will convert ourselves into one of the large oil exporters to the Chinese giant," Chavez said.
He said agreements would be signed with state-owned China National Petroleum Corp and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) yesterday to jointly exploit his country's oil-rich Orinoco region.
Deals to be signed
Chavez said he was excited about building a strategic alliance with China and said the two nations were expected to sign nine agreements yesterday when he met with Hu.
"We are building the future. I am very heartened -- it is our fourth visit to China. Each visit is a step forward ... that is to say, a true alliance," he said.
Among the contracts expected to be signed were a deal to build 18 tankers to carry Venezuelan crude to China and 12 drilling rigs to help Venezuela boost its production capacity.
Chavez's statements backed up his country's offer earlier this month to export between 500,000 and 1 million barrels of oil a day to China if it reached a goal of producing 5.8 million barrels of crude by 2012.
Chavez said that during his first day of his trip to China on Wednesday he had met with company officials from the telecommunications, oil tanker and building construction industries.
While Chavez looks to China as an alternative market to the US, observers have said the arrangement is beneficial to Beijing because it wants to diversify its imports away from the volatile Middle East.
However some Chinese analysts have questioned whether the deal would be worth it, given the higher costs associated with Venezuelan oil. Aside from the extra expense of the long distance the oil would have to be shipped, Venezuelan crude is heavier than most of the Middle Eastern varieties, making it more costly to refine.
As well as looking to broker energy deals, Chavez took time out on Wednesday to hail China's economic model as an alternative to the US capitalist approach.
Better than the moon
Chavez praised China for being able, in less than half a century, to leave behind a "practically feudal" society and turn itself into one of the world's largest economies.
"It's an example for western leaders and governments that claim capitalism is the only alternative," he said.
"We've been manipulated to believe that the first man on the moon was the most important event of the 20th century.
"But no, much more important things happened, and one of the greatest events of the 20th century was the Chinese revolution," he said.
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also
RSS