Venezuela will guarantee Uruguay’s oil supply for the next 25 years

Venezuela will guarantee Uruguay’s oil supply for the next 25 years as part of an energy deal that also includes providing fuel to other countries in the region.
"We are going to support our Uruguayan brothers and the government of President Tabare Vazquez; we are determined to broaden our relations and do business together," said President Chavez in Montevideo following the signing of several joint bilateral accords.

A Venezuelan vessel carrying 1 mm barrels of crude is already en route to Montevideo and Chavez promised that Venezuela will immediately invest the $ 40 mm of the bunker in projects in Uruguay.
These include $ 18 mm in the upgrading of a government owned cement plant which will then provide Venezuela with cement under favourable conditions for President Chavez administration housing programs. The remaining $ 12 mm are to be invested in refurbishing a sugar cane alcohol plant which will export to Venezuela the so called “green fuel.”

Uruguay imports all the oil it consumes, approximately 50,000 bpd and Venezuela is the world's fifth-leading oil exporter and fourth US supplier.
Presidents Vazquez and Chavez also announced work had started on a "strategic alliance" to drill for oil in Venezuela's so-called Orinoco strip. "Uruguay's contribution to the joint exploration will not entail funds, but technicians and expertise” indicated Mr Chavez.

Venezuela's government-owned oil company PdVSA is interested in refining heavy oil in Uruguay’s only refinery strategically located in the South Atlantic coast. PdVSA plans are to expand the refinery and export fuel to energy short Mercosur members. The project, involving several hundred million dollars, would double the refinery’s capacity to 100,000 bpd adapting it to the heavy sulphur Venezuelan crude.
"The technical, legal, market and option studies will take six months... if the decision is made to build a new plant, it will take at least five years of work and more than $ 600 mm" admitted Uruguay’s oil company president Daniel Martinez.