Russia and Venezuela have agreed that Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP will buy BP's assets in the Latin American country, a memorandum signed by the countries' energy ministers said on Friday.
The memorandum was signed during Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' current visit to Russia.
In July, TNK-BP confirmed negotiations with BP on the acquisition of BP's minority share in two exploration projects in Venezuela, which were jointly developed with Venezuela's state-owned corporation Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The deal was estimated at $1 billion.
Reuters news agency in August quoted banking sources as saying that TNK-BP had turned to 16 banks for a $2 billion unsecured loan, $1 billion of which is to be spent on acquiring BP's Venezuelan assets.
MOSCOW, Oct 15 (RIA Novosti)
