On May 9, witnessed by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, a framework agreement on creating a joint venture to develop Junin-4 Block was signed by CNPC Vice President Zhou Jiping and   Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, who is also President of PDVSA.  

According to this framework agreement, a joint venture will be established by CNPC and PDVSA, in which CNPC has a 40% stake and PDVSA has a 60% stake. The venture will drill for and upgrade the super-heavy oil at Junin-4 Block in the Orinoco heavy oil belt with a target annual productivity of 20 million tons.  

Another framework agreement was also signed by Zhou Jiping and Asdrubal Chavez, Vice President of PDVSA to build a joint venture refinery in China, in which CNPC has a 60% stake and PDVSA has a 40% stake.