Oil producers Iran and Venezuela signal 20-year cooperation plan

Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation plan in Tehran on Saturday as the 2 international locations, among the many world’s prime oil producers, grapple with U.S. sanctions which might be crippling their exports.

The signing ceremony, carried by Iranian state TV, was overseen by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro and happened on the Saadabad Palace in north Tehran.

The plan consists of cooperation within the fields of oil, petrochemicals, defence, agriculture, tourism, and tradition and was signed by overseas ministers Hossein Amirabdollahian and Venezuela’s Carlos Faria.

It additionally consists of restore of Venezuelan refineries and the export of technical and engineering providers.

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“Venezuela has shown exemplary resistance against sanctions and threats from enemies and Imperialists,” Iran’s Raisi mentioned. “The 20-year cooperation document is testimony to the will of the two countries to develop ties.”

“Sanctions and threats against the Iranian nation over the past 40 plus years have been numerous, but the Iranian nation has turned these sanctions into an opportunity for the country’s progress,” he mentioned.

Maduro mentioned via an interpreter {that a} weekly flight from Caracas to Tehran would start on July 18.

Maduro, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, is on a two-day go to and heads a high-ranking political and financial delegation. Earlier, he visited Turkey and Algeria.

Maduro and Raisi later attended a ceremony marking the supply to Venezuela of the second of 4 Aframax-sized oil tankers, with a capability of 800,000 barrels every, which it has ordered from Iran’s SADRA firm, the Iranian state information company IRNA mentioned.

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SADRA has been underneath U.S. sanctions for greater than a decade over its hyperlinks to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

Iran and Venezuela have expanded cooperation since 2020, significantly in vitality tasks and oil swaps.

In May, Iran’s state-owned National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Co signed a contract value about 110 million euros to restore Venezuela’s smaller 146,000 barrel-per-day refinery.

That settlement was sealed after current negotiations attended by Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji, who was in Venezuela early final month.