Russia and Venezuela signed an agreement for a joint venture to develop the South American country’s Junin-6 oil field on 1 February. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russian oil major LUKoil and Russian gas monopoly Gazprom aimed to invest some $600 million in developing the field. By Moscow estimates, over $10 billion are slated for investment in developing Junin-6 with its estimated reserves of 53 billion barrels of oil.