Venezuela to Increase Significantly Oil Exports to China

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pledged to increase significantly oil exports to China.

After a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, Chavez said, "We have raised the strategic relationship to a very high level."

While no concrete oil export commitment was announced in the deals, Chavez said Venezuela now expected to more than triple its crude deliveries to China in three years and increase supplies more than six-fold within a decade.

"In 2009, we'll reach half a million barrels a day (of oil exports to China) and in the next decade we'll see a million barrels," Chavez said.

Venezuela, the fifth biggest exporter of oil in the world, currently exports 150,000 barrels a day to China.