Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla and Venezuelan foreign minister Ivan Khel Pinto discussed potential cooperation opportunities between the two countries in the fields of oil, gas and petrochemicals.
The Venezuelan minister pointed out, according to the statement of the Egyptian Ministry of petroleum, that he had a fruitful interview with several Egyptian companies affiliated with the petroleum sector, during which it was stressed the need to activate the role of the Egyptian-Venezuelan Joint Committee, and joint cooperation with Egyptian petroleum companies in light of the outstanding expertise it enjoys in engineering designs, Petroleum Services and project implementation.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister pointed out that his country produces about one million barrels of crude oil per day, and aims to raise production to 2 million barrels per day, increase exports, as well as the growth of petroleum projects in light of the economic recovery phase that the country is going through, and there is a need for Egyptian technical, engineering and administrative expertise in this field, noting the possibility of expanding cooperation with Egypt in the field of mining in light of his country’s large untapped mineral wealth.
For his part, the minister of Petroleum stressed the readiness of the sector to support joint cooperation and its expansion on the ground, explaining that the oil sector companies have gained outstanding experience and qualifications in recent years in the design, implementation and management of major projects inside and outside Egypt with international professional levels.
The minister said that the petroleum sector has cooperated with Venezuela in the past through the implementation of several projects, and has received more than 70 Venezuelan engineers to be trained at enpi training centers, and is ready to open channels and means of cooperation again in all fields of Petroleum work.
It was agreed to form a working group to develop a roadmap for cooperation in various petroleum fields, in preparation for signing a memorandum of understanding, in addition to the visit of a delegation from the Egyptian petroleum sector to Venezuela to study the proposed aspects of cooperation on the ground.
