Venezuela has selected a little-known, Dutch-registered company for a new joint venture at the Junin 10 oil block in its Orinoco Belt region, according to a decree published on Thursday. Stichting Administratiekantoor Inversiones Petroleras Iberoamericanas will have a 40 percent participation in the project, the official government gazette said, without giving any financial details of the deal. Majority partner and state oil company PDVSA believes the block has the potential to produce 200,000 barrels per day. PDVSA in the past has rejected offers by Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total SA to partner at Junin 10. The Oil Ministry decree said President Nicolas Maduro’s council of ministers had approved the new partner and new joint venture, to be called Petrosur. Such deals would normally be tendered and formerly required approval by Venezuela’s National Assembly. But since the assembly has been in opposition hands after a December 2015 […]