Puri Meets Rodriguez Says Indian Energy Psus Eye New Collaborations With Venezuela

(MENAFN- Live Mint) New Delhi: Indian oil and gas companies plan to build upon their existing investments in Venezuela along with seeking new collaboration opportunities to enhance bilateral energy partnership, said Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri.

Puri, along with heads of Indian oil and gas companies, met Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday.

Taking to social media platform X after the meeting, Puri said that a technical team from India would soon visit the South American nation to study opportunities in the energy space.

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“Venezuela possesses biggest proven reserves of oil in the world, while India not only possesses huge demand for energy, but also has the technological expertise and manpower to refine Venezuelan crude in our refineries. Venezuela is already among the largest crude oil suppliers to India in April & May 2026, which is a reflection of the future potential. Our technical team will visit Venezuela soon to further explore this potential,” Puri wrote in a post.

“Indian companies already have existing investments in Venezuela and now look forward to building upon them, in addition to looking for newer opportunities for fruitful collaborations which will provide momentum to our quest towards energy security,” he added.

Long-standing partnership

In his post, Puri said India has a long-standing energy partnership with Venezuela since 2008 and shares unique complementarities with the country.

ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo (CVP) (subsidiary of PdVSA) have a joint venture called“PetroleraIndovenezolana SA” for the production and exploration of oil in the San Cristóbal field, in which OVL has 40% stake, while PDVSA has the remaining 60% stake. OVL's investment in the San Cristóbal project is approximately $200 million.

An international consortium comprising OVL, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India Limited (OIL), Repsol of Spain, and Petronas of Malaysia was declared the winner of an international bidding process in April 2008 to develop a multi‐million-dollar oil project integrated in Carabobo in the Orinoco belt of Venezuela.

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Due to sanctions imposed by the US on Venezuela, OVL has been unable to repatriate more than $500 million in dividends from Venezuela.

Mint earlier reported that India is in talks with the US and Venezuela to resolve the issue of stuck dividends.

Earlier in the day, Rodríguez met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and held talks on forging a long-term energy partnership and collaboration in pharmaceuticals and critical minerals.

Rodríguez is on a four-day visit to India with a delegation that includes five ministers. This is her first trip to India since she became the acting president after US troops captured President Nicolas Maduro in January.

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