Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Wednesday announced a 16-billion-dollar deal with China to drill for oil in the resource-rich Orinoco basin.

"Yesterday (Tuesday), a deal was signed in Beijing for the Orinoco basin. It sets out a Chinese investment of 16 billion dollars over the next three years," Chavez said at a public event.

He gave few details of the pact and did not name the Chinese companies nvolved, but said they would form a joint venture with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to produce 450,000 barrels a day of extra heavy crude.

Venezuela, a founding member of the oil cartel OPEC and Latin America's top oil exporter, announced Saturday that it had signed a similar accord with a Russian consortium.

The deal will see the group of five Russian companies invest more than 20 billion dollars over three years, and gives them rights to drill for oil in the Junin-6 block of the Orinoco oil belt.

That joint venture is also expected to produce 450,000 barrels a day by 2012, Chavez said.

Oil-rich Venezuela claims current proven reserves of some 142.3 billion barrels, but Venezuelan experts believe the Orinoco basin could hold an additional 235 billion barrels.