Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday inaugurated a joint oil-drilling venture to be developed by the two nations.

Work was begun on the joint venture, designed to explore for oil in the 500-square km area of Ayacucho's Block 7 on the Orinoco Petroliferous Strip, on the Kuricapo oil field close to San Tome town in the northeast Venezuelan state of Anzoategui.

The two heads of state jointly unveiled a plaque commemorating the beginning of operations at the MFK-4E well in Kuricapo, the first drilling operation under a March 2005 contract signed by state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela and its Iranian counterpart Petropars.

The joint drilling operation will allow the companies to quantify and formally certify the deposits in the block, which are estimated to be as high as 31.2 billion barrels of crude oil in situ.

This certification process is a part of Venezuela's Magna Reserva (Bumper Reserve) plan which foresees a massive increase in Venezuela's certified oil reserves.

The 11,593-square km belt consists of four areas -- Boyaca, Junin, Ayacucho and Carabobo, each being further divided into 27 blocks.

The Iranian president, who arrived in Venezuela on Sunday, was on a two-day official visit to the South American country.

Chavez and Ahmadinejad had both attended the 14th Summit of Non-Aligned Movement nations in Cuba.

On Sunday they held a formal meeting here at the Miraflores Palace, and signed a series of cooperative agreements.

Later on Monday, they were to attend a ceremony involving the delivery of farm equipment to small-scale producers in the south Venezuelan state of Bolivar.

Ahmadinejad will fly to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly following his visit to Venezuela.

Source: Xinhua