El Universal: Rafael Ramirez, the Minister of Energy & Petroleum and president of the state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), met on Friday in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Minister of Economy, Trade & Industry Toshihiro Nikai in order to boost energy cooperation agreements recently executed by the two countries.

According to a spokesman of the Japanese Ministry of Economy (METI), the visit to Japan was requested by the Venezuelan government two weeks ago, when Prime Minister Aso had a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Ramirez arrived in Tokyo from Vienna, where he participated in the extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which was held on Thursday, to determine the level of crude oil supply required in the coming months. The minister met with Aso and this evening he will have a dinner with Nikai and with Toru Ishida, the Director-General of the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, to discuss the energy cooperation agreements signed in March, said the spokesman of METI. Ramirez signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan last March in Tokyo for joint development of energy sources, such as oil and liquefied natural gas.

In early April, President Hugo Chavez also travelled to Tokyo to ratify nine strategic agreements on energy cooperation and to boost bilateral relations. The instruments included the "possibility of financing" energy projects from the Japanese government and providing facilities for Japanese companies to develop oil reserves in the Orinoco Oil Belt, one of the largest oil deposits in the world, Efe reported.

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