Venezuela Aiming to Ship 1 MMbopd to China

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said here Thursday that he has reached an agreement with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on a plan to boost Venezuela’s oil shipments to China to 1 million barrels per day next year.

“I proposed that given the global situation we study the possibility and we agreed to move up the target set in the strategic accord for 2013,” the leftist leader said to applause from a hundred or so national, provincial and local leaders at the Communist Party academy.

Talks on reaching that level of supply, building a Venezuelan refinery in Chinese territory and launching a joint venture for crude transport were the top items on the agenda during Chavez’s visit.

“Those three top strategic objectives already justify the working visit to China, but we have other political and geo-political interests to discuss with President Hu Jintao,” Chavez said shortly after landing Tuesday in Beijing for a visit that concluded Thursday.

Rigzone