MEXICO, October 31 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian drilling platform has started extracting natural gas in the Gulf of Venezuela, the Latin American country's communications ministry said on Friday.

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.