The platform is located at Block Junin 2 in eastern Venezuela 'sOrinoco River Delta, 800km away from the capital of Caracas .
The event was witnessed by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister HoangTrung Hai and other senior officials of the two countries.
Block Junin 2 is expected to yield up to 31 billion barrels of crudeoil over a total area of 247.7sq.km, and it is considered to be thesecond biggest oil field in the world in terms of reserves, according tothe website Petrotimes.vn.
PVEP is an affiliate ofthe Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and CVP is amember of Venezuelan State-owned oil group (PDVSA – Petroleos deVenezuela SA). The joint venture was officially set up in June 2010.
Do Van Hau, director general of PetroVietnam, said at the event: "Itis estimated that next year PDV-39 platform will churn out some 7,000barrels of heavy crude oil per day, whereas Block Junin 2 will reach atotal output of more than 200,000 barrels or 10 million tonnes of crudeoil per day."
Heavy crude oil will be processed atoil refineries in both countries to turn into light commercial oil orfuels for the auto industry and other sectors.
Under the co-operation contract, PetroVietnam holds a 40 percent stake and its Venezuelan partner has the rest.
Petrotimes reported that the oil exploitation at Block Junin 2 willhelp ensure energy security for Vietnam within the next 25 years.
Venezuela ranks in the top five oil exportersin the world. Oil industry accounts for 82 percent of the country'stotal export turnover and makes up half of the country's GDP.
PetroVietnam has continued to perform well and surpass most of itstargets for the first quarter. At the end of March, its total revenuereached 189.4 trillion VND (9 billion USD), up 25.3 percent year-on-yearand exceeding the first-quarter target by 29.4 percent.
The group's contribution to the State budget totalled 40.6 trillionVND (1.93 billion USD), a year-on-year increase of 24 percent andsurpassing the period target of 15.3 percent.
Itstotal oil production in the first quarter reached 6.45 million tonnes,equivalent to 106 percent of the first-quarter plan and up 7.2 percentyear-on-year. Oil sales were 4.03 million tonnes, 4.4 percent above thetarget.-VNA