New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS) As several countries across the globe criticised the US military attack on Venezuela on Saturday, industry watchers said that India’s economic interests in the South American country are minimal and it is not dependent on Venezuela for oil.

The bilateral trade between the nations was $1.175 billion in 2023-24, according to information available on the website of the Embassy of India in Caracas.

The main items of India’s exports to Venezuela are mineral fuels and oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances, pharmaceutical products, cotton, nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical machinery and equipment; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, articles of apparel and clothing accessories and miscellaneous chemical products.

According to industry experts, the bilateral trade is very minimal, and the country is now dependent on Venezuela for crude oil imports.

The main items of India’s imports from Venezuela are mineral fuels and oils and products of their distillation, bituminous substances, mineral waxes, iron and steel, aluminium, edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers, copper and articles thereof, lead and articles thereof, zinc and articles thereof, wood and articles of wood, among others, according to the Embassy.

ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo (CVP) (subsidiary of PdVSA) have a joint venture called “PetroleraIndovenezolana SA” for the production and exploration of oil in the San Cristobal field, in which OVL has a 40 per cent stake, while PDVSA has 60 per cent of the remaining stake.

The OVL investment in the San Cristobal project is approximately US $200 million.

An international consortium comprising ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India Limited (OIL), Repsol of Spain and Petronas of Malaysia was declared the winner of an international bidding process in April 2008 to develop a multi‐million-dollar oil project integrated in Carabobo in the Orinoco belt of Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Venezuela Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Saturday said that the whereabouts of the country’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are unknown following the US attacks in Caracas, Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira in the early hours of Saturday (local time).

Earlier, US President Donald Trump claimed that the Venezuelan President and his wife had been “captured” and “flown out” of the country.

–IANS

na/dan