Cash-strapped PDVSA offers Rosneft oil stake: Reuters

A Reuters report says Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA may be looking to Rosneft to help the cash-strapped company weather low oil prices.

PDVSA offers Rosneft 10 per cent stake in Petropiar joint venture

Reuters is reporting that Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has offered Russia’s Rosneft a stake in the country’s Orinoco Belt extra-heavy crude area.

The sale is a sign of the South American nation’s poor economic situation and Moscow’s growing muscle in the region.

According to sources, Rosneft has been offered a 10 per cent stake in the Petropiar joint venture.  Currently, PDVSA has a 70 per cent share in the project and Chevron holds the other 30 per cent.

Petropiar includes an oilfield and a 210,000 b/d oil upgrader.

Two sources told Reuters that the offer was part of a larger package offered to Rosneft as PDVSA looks to raise money to pay suppliers and bond holders.

PDVSA, Venezuela’s Oil Ministry, Chevron and Rosneft all refused to comment.

One source close to the matter says Chevron is concerned about Russia’s accounting and transparency laws are less strict than in the US.  The oil major is also concerned about US sanctions that have been imposed against Russia.

In Venezuela, the opposition-controlled National Assembly says the unpopular government of President Nicolas Maduro is surreptitiously selling strategic assets in an effort to weather the country’s economic crisis.

“Any deal of national interest must be approved by the National Assembly,” tweeted lawmaker Jose Guerra, head of congress’ finance commission, in reaction to Reuters’ article. “If PDVSA sells 10 (percent) of Petropiar to Rosneft, that sale is null and void.”

According to the Reuters report, PDVSA has borrowed from Rosneft between $4 billion and $5 billion, but the details of those deals have not been disclosed.

“We must thank life that Russia and the world have a Vladimir Putin,” Maduro said at a deal-signing event with Rosneft head Igor Sechin last year.

“I wanted to be here at this event because of how important relations with the new Russia are.”