Venezuela and Brazil to sign deals on oil and power

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela and Brazil to sign deals on oil and power

27-04-10 Hugo Chavez and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will sign cooperation deals worth at least $ 2 bn on oil and power generation, the Venezuelan president said.

"We are going to sign a package of agreements following what Lula was talking about in Caracas: speeding up the pace" of cooperation, Chavez said in a meeting of his cabinet broadcast on VTV state television.

The leaders will sign one pact worth $ 2 bn to build in north-eastern Venezuela a petrochemical plant to process polypropylene with Brazil's Brasquen, Chavez said. He and Lula will sign other agreements on electricity -- as Venezuela confronts lingering shortages -- as well as finance, farming, and cars.

"The political relationship that we have consolidated has been a victory for both of us," Chavez argued in the meeting.

The two will meet at a series of regular direct talks, which they have been taking turns holding in each country. Chavez also meanwhile took sides in Brazil's upcoming presidential vote.He said he hoped Lula's ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff, whom he called a "friend," would win. With Lula's Workers Party, she would be Brazil's first woman president.

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntl102590.htm