China signs 12 deals with Venezuela

China and Venezuela signed 12 cooperation agreements in the fields of education, agriculture, energy, construction on the sidelines of a visit by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to Beijing. Among them, Venezuelan oil giant Petroleo de Venezuela SA reached a $1.4 billion deal with China Petrochemical Corp to develop Venezuela's Junin 1 heavy oil bloc, which will produce 200,000 barrels a day. The country has also secured an agreement with China Development Bank on a $5 billion line of credit for social development. The Export-Import Bank of China will lend Venezuela's state petrochemicals company Pequiven $390 million for the construction of a port. Venezuela has also secured funding from Chinese banks for a mining survey around the country and has agreed with China's CITIC Group to move forward with gold mining projects in Venezuela's Las Cristinas deposits. Venezuelan Oil and Mining Minister Rafael Ramirez said earlier that Venezuela exported 626,000 barrels of oil per day to China in the first four months of this year and the figure is expected to reach 1 million barrels per day within two years.