TEHRAN – Iranian Petroleum Minister Javad Owji and his Venezuelan counterpart have discussed the Tehran-Caracas bilateral cooperation in the field of energy.
The latest developments in the global oil market were another topic discussed in a phone conversation between Owji and the Venezuelan Minister of Industries and National Production and Minister of Petroleum Tareck El Aissami.
Several months ago, Iran and Venezuela signed different agreements and MoUs during Owji’s visit to Caracas. The documents signed between the two countries include the fields of expansion and production in oil and gas fields, upgrade and modernization of refineries and utilization of refinery capacities, and training human resources and expertise in oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.
On October 16, Owji announced the launch of the first refinery built by Iran overseas called El Palito refinery in Venezuela.
Owji said that refinery has the capacity of refining 100,000 barrels of crude oil from the country’s fields.
In 2020, Iran launched a new supermarket, Megasis, in Venezuela. Perched on the eastern edge of Caracas, the 200,000 square foot megastore sits next to Venezuela’s largest slum, Petare, where it stocks a dazzling array of over 2,500 Iranian products, many considered novelties to its new customers.
With constant flow of tankers, cargo ships and planes between the two countries, the supermarket is a small piece in a growing mosaic of bilateral and possibly multilateral projects.
The budding relationship, however, has alarmed Washington which deems it as part of asymmetric warfare against the West, where the interests of Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia and Cuba align.