Chinese banks are expected to loan Venezuela $4B this year for a j.v. project between Venezuela's state-run PDVSA and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to develop part of the Venezuelan Orinoco extra-heavy crude belt. Similarly, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez indicated that he had reached an agreement with Italian oil company Eni for a $1.5B investment in the Junin-5 oil block. Japanese Itochu and Mitsubishi have also agreed to loan PDVSA $1.5B for work at the 195K-b/d Puerto la Cruz and 126.9K-b/d El Palito refineries to raise capacity to 210K b/d and 140K b/d, respectively. The 15-year loan is expected to be repaid with cash or crude.
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