MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuela...

"We"ll invest $20 billion in that block for upstream development, perforation and in an upgrader," Bloomberg quoted Rafael Ramirez as saying.

Ramirez added that the Russian companies have paid a bonus of $1 billion for participation in the development of the deposit that could produce 400,000-450,000 barrels of crude a day.

During last week"s visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Moscow, his country"s state oil and gas company PdVSA and the Russian consortium, NNK, signed a memorandum of understanding. They also agreed to establish a joint venture for work on the Junin 6 block.

NNK, or the National Oil Consortium, consists of Rosneft, energy giant Gazprom, Lukoil, TNK-BP and Surgutneftegaz. It is to establish a joint venture with PdVSA by the end of 2009. In line with Venezuelan laws, foreign companies can produce oil as part of a joint venture.

Venezuela is one of the largest oil producing countries in the world, with about 87 billion barrels of

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