Russia’s largest privately owned oil company Lukoil said Tuesday it sold its share in a Venezuelan project to state-controlled oil giant Rosneft. Rosneft, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said its share in the National Oil Consortium LLC, the company that is developing the project called PetroMiranda, rose to 80%. Gazprom Neft , the oil arm of Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom, owns 20%. All the three companies are under Western sanctions imposed for Moscow’s policy toward Ukraine. Rosneft has consistently increased its cooperation with Venezuela, Chief Executive Igor Sechin said. “Taking into account the future decline of shale production in the U.S. and Canada, it is Venezuelan oil that can become the substitutional element for the receding volumes of those markets,” said Mr. Sechin. Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov said the company “is now implementing a number of strategically important projects, both in Russia and abroad. After the […]