06-09-04 Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Jesus Arnaldo Perez said that China, Venezuela and Colombia are trying to resolve technological and legal obstacles to shipping crude oil across the Pacific Ocean.
Venezuela signed a contract in July with its South American neighbour to build a crude oil pipeline connecting its oil fields with a port on Colombia's Pacific coast. That cross-border pipeline would allow direct crude oil shipments to China, bypassing the Panama Strait and cutting delivery times.
"The pipeline is built specifically for transporting Venezuela crude oil to China and will greatly facilitate the oil transportation from Venezuela to China," Perez told. "The pipeline will lay a solid foundation for the two countries to expand the cooperation in the energy sector in the future," he said.

China National Petroleum Corp. officials also met earlier with Perez to discuss expanding energy cooperation between the two countries, a Venezuelan official said. However, the foreign minister isn't travelling with delegates from the state oil company or relevant energy bureaucrats, the official told.
Perez said foreign relations ties with China are among Venezuela’s top priorities and cooperation in energy sectors between the two countries carries great importance.

A joint Venezuela-China commission will meet in October or November to explore further areas of potential cooperation such as natural gas, repairing crude oil carriers and possible exports of Orimulsion fuel oil to China.
"Venezuela will make every effort to guarantee the Orimulsion fuel oil supply to China," Perez said. Perez said Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is scheduled to visit China early next year to sign a number of cooperation agreements between the two countries.

Although one of Latin America's largest oil exporters, Venezuela's shipments to China, the world's second largest oil consumer, are still relatively minor.
In the first seven months of this year, Venezuela exported only 61,061 tons of crude oil to China. During the same period, China imported at total of 70.6 mm tons of crude oil, mostly from Oman, Saudi Arabia and Angola.