Russia-based Rosneft Oil Company has agreed to pay a specific amount to Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in exchange for an increase in the former's stake in the Petromonagas crude-processing joint venture.

Rosneft will pay a total amount of $500 million to PDVSA in order for Rosneft to have 40 percent ownership of their joint project. Their project involves converting heavy oil into synthetic crude.

Before the agreement, Rosneft only held 16.7 percent ownership while PDVSA held the remaining 83.3 percent in the joint venture. The increase is 23.33%. 

"The $500 million in new investment for production in the Venezuelan oil industry comes amid a crisis," President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday. The ceremony attended by officials from Rosneft and PDVSA was held in Monagas state and was televised.

PDVSA is a state-owned corporation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela while Rosneft is an integrated oil company majority owned by the Government of Russia.

The Petromonagas project, according to a blog, is located in Venezuela's Orinoco belt. It is said to produce an average of 133,600 barrels a day of the synthetic crude.

Rosneft additional investments is one of the results of Venezuela's consistent plea for partners to increase investment in joint ventures. This is in order to raise cash that would help the Venezuela weather its deepest recession in a decade.

In addition to this increase in investment, partners Rosneft and PDVSA also signed an agreement for another joint development that involves the production, treatment, and sale of natural gas from offshore fields in Patao, Mejillones, and Rio Caribe. The companies will each have 50 percent interest in the venture.

"The three fields are part of the Mariscal Sucre natural gas project off the eastern coast of Venezuela. Production from the fields may reach 25 million cubic metres (883 million cubic feet) per day, which potentially could be shipped by pipeline or as liquefied natural gas, also known as LNG. Another offshore field, Dragon, is also part of Mariscal Sucre but apparently not covered by the agreement."

Rosneft holds for other projects in Venezuela, aside from Petromonagas, These are Petrovictoria, Petromiranda, Boqueron and Petroperija.