Venezuela aims to boost oil exports to China

Venezuela hopes to boost its oil exports to China by more than half to a million barrels a day, President Nicolas Maduro said after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The two countries are in talks on investments to achieve this goal, said Maduro, adding "we are going to achieve it." Wang is on a tour of Latin American countries. In 2013 Venezuela exported an average of 626,000 barrels a day of oil to energy-hungry China. China is Venezuela's main oil customer after the United States. Maduro gave no timetable for the higher oil export goal. If it is achieved China would become Venezuela's top oil buyer. The United States has tense relations with Venezuela but still imported an average of 800,000 barrels a day in 2013. Beijing is an important source of investment capital for Venezuela, which sits atop the world's largest proven crude oil reserves. In September, China pledged to invest more than $20 billion in Venezuelan oil and social cooperation when Maduro paid his first visit to Beijing. China and Venezuela had trade worth more than $20 billion in 2012. After his Venezuelan visit, Wang was to head to Argentina and Brazil, the latter being South America's industrial, farm and financial giant. He arrived in Venezuela from Cuba.