Venezuela Says Shell to Provide $400 mln Financing for Oil Venture

Royal Dutch Shell Plc will provide some $400 million in financing to boost oil output at Venezuela's Petroregional del Lago, a joint venture with state-run PDVSA, the South American country announced on Tuesday.

Petroregional, which operates the Urdaneta oilfield in Venezuela's western Maracaibo Lake, produces between 30,000 barrels per day and 35,000 bpd, according to Shell's website. Shell holds a 40 percent stake in the venture.

The agreement aims to increase total production to 344 million barrels between the 2017 and 2035 period, PDVSA said in a statement, or an average of around 52,400 bpd.

"As a minority partner, (Shell) has decided to start a financing of $400 million for the joint venture we have in the lake," Venezuela's oil minister and PDVSA president, Eulogio Del Pino, said in an interview broadcast over PDVSA's radio station.

Shell did not immediately respond to a request for details on the financing arrangement.

Recession-hit OPEC nation Venezuela is seeking to recover its oil production after a nearly 10 percent tumble in output this year. Operations have been crimped by a lack of investment, shortages of equipment and spare parts, a brain drain, and crime.

(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Alexandra Ulmer)