(Venezuelanalysis.com) - "Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez traveled to Manaus, Brazil, to meet with his Brazilian counterpart President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The two presidents met to discuss various matters including the Gas Pipeline of the South project, Venezuela's entry into Mercosur, the Bank of the South, and other bilateral projects. The two leaders agreed to meet every three months from now on to continue with the integrationist agenda and move forward with the bilateral agreements.

'We spoke about everything,' said Chávez upon leaving the meeting. 'With regards to energy we agreed to accelerate the technical meetings in order to move forward with the agreements for the formations of joint companies.'

Brazil and Venezuela agreed two years ago to build a joint oil refinery in northeastern Brazil between the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, and the Brazilian Petrobras (.)

As a counterpart to the joint refinery project in Brazil, the two leaders had also agreed on a joint company in Venezuela to extract oil from the Orinoco reserves. At the meeting the two presidents confirmed the formation of both projects and assured they would continue forward with the cooperative initiatives despite the controversy.

'Today we observe the beginning of the construction of the Pernambuco (Brazil) Refinery, where Petrobras and PDVSA are working together. Likewise a refinery in the Orinoco will be constructed with both companies,' said Chávez.

Also discussed was the Gas Pipeline of the South project, an initiative that Chávez has been pushing and that would carry Venezuelan natural gas through Brazil all the way to Argentina. Although the project appeared to not be progressing in recent months, Chávez assured recently that he would be bringing it up again at the meeting with the Brazilian president.

According to Lula, Brazil and Venezuela will continue moving forward with technical meetings and will be contracting companies to carry out the necessary studies to determine the viability of the project. Chávez emphasized the strategic importance of the pipeline, calling it the 'skeleton' of regional integration and affirmed the existence of political will on the part of both countries to carry it forward.

'Venezuela ratifies here, in Manaus, the strong will to construct this great gas pipeline,' he said. 'It will serve to protect us from the threats of an energy crisis and assure us the necessary energy.'

Chávez also thanked Brazil for their collaboration in the industrial development of Venezuela and their technological cooperation in this area.

Regarding the project of the Bank of the South, a multinational fund to finance development projects in the region, Chávez assured that the project is 'ready to begin'.

Chávez assured that the bank will begin operating before the end of 2007 and that its headquarters will be located in Caracas (.)".