The work is being carried out by Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom, which won a tender for the development of Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 gas fields under the Rafael Urdaneta project.
The ministry quoted President Hugo Chavez as saying; "The gas will be used for the development of western Venezuela. We also have plans to build a natural gas liquefying plant."
To develop the fields, with 100 million cubic meters of proven gas reserves, Gazprom has established two joint ventures - UrdanetaGazprom-1 S.A. è UrdanetaGazprom-2 S.A. - with Venezuelan gas monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.
Chavez also said that a few Russian military vessels, including a cruiser and several submarines, would soon arrive in the region for a joint exercise with the Venezuelan Navy.