Iran and Venezuela item of the day

Venezuela, Iran to explore Orinoco oil reserves

Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) signed a deal on Monday with Iran's state company Petropars to explore the heavy oil deposits in Ayacucho Block 7, a 540 square km block in Venezuela's Orinoco River basin.

The study will form the basis of a future joint venture to extract crude.

As far as I can see, I'm the only blogger [*] pointing at the ever-closer relationship between Hugo and the mullahs, which includes

• fifty memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on expansion of mutual cooperation in gas, petrochemical, and aluminum fields, construction of a brick factory and of a second cement factory in Venezuela by Iranian contractors, tractor manufacturing, establishment of bank branches in both countries, construction of a flour factory, dairies, cooling industries, plastic auto parts, irrigation systems, detergents, ceramics, food packaging, and bread baking.
• Iran is constructing 10,000 residential units in Venezuela, a project to be completed in four phases within a four-year period.
• Venezuela and Iran have agreed to explore setting up a joint shipbuilding operation .. .
  The preliminary agreement signed Monday envisions jointly building oil tankers, liquid natural gas tankers and other vessels, and training Venezuelans in shipbuilding technology.
• Venezuela cast the only vote in opposition to the UN's IAEA resolution on Iran
• Venezuela's interested in developing a nuclear program with Iran's help

If I were a betting person, I'd wager that this is only the beginning, folks.

[*] Update: I stand corrected. Rosemary's been looking at Iran's Interest in Venezuela , too.

(technorati tags iran, Venezuela)