(Associated Press) - "Brazil and Venezuela agreed to forge ahead with two joint ventures between their state-run oil companies and a natural gas pipeline that would stretch across the Amazon rainforest.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez signed a series of accords to speed the projects that had been agreed.

'We intend to sign the contracts in December in Caracas,' Silva said. 'With these partnerships we are showing that South America can resolve its energy problems.'

Outlining the joint ventures between state oil companies, Chávez said one company would operate Carabobo I, an extra-heavy oil field in Venezuela's Orinoco Basin. Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, will provide 60 percent of the capital for the Carabobo project, with the remainder coming from Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.

Another company would operate an oil refinery in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco with 60 percent of the capital coming from Petrobras and 40 percent from PdVSA.

Chávez called the projects 'the nerve of (South American) integration,' adding that they would 'shield (Silva) from an energy crisis'.

Earlier in the day, Chávez said Venezuela wanted to share its immense reserves of crude oil and natural gas with Brazil and other countries in the region because 'the world was entering an energy crisis' and that Brazil only had enough natural gas reserves to last 10 more years'.

Silva also said they would soon select a company to develop a project for a natural gas pipeline from Venezuela to Brazil's northeast (.)".