MEXICO CITY, November 2 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian floating platform will start to drill deep test wells on November 7 to prospect natural gas fields in the Gulf of Venezuela, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.

In 2005, Gazprom won a tender to prospect and develop natural gas blocks Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 in the Gulf of Venezuela as part of the Rafael Urdaneta project.

Speaking at the ceremony of opening an electric power plant in the state of Falcon, Chavez said that the Gulf of Venezuela boasted natural gas reserves of 100 billion cubic meters. The Venezuelan leader also urged other countries to take part in exploration drilling in the territorial waters of Venezuela.

Venezuela's proven natural gas reserves amount to 4.1 trillion cubic meters. The Latin American country holds the second-largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere after the United States.