If you want to know what Russia’s energy ambitions are in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, I used to tell people that all you had to do was carefully track the travel schedule of Vladimir Putin.  Nowadays, the same can be said of the Energy Czar Igor Sechin, as his itinerary is bound to be connected with the signing of major deals.

Case in point, yesterday afternoon, Russia’s RIA Novosti Spanish wire service reported on the arrival of the Deputy Prime Minister and Rosneft Chairman to Caracas, Venezuela.  The reason for the trip, as duly reported by the state news agency, was to prepare for Hugo Chavez’s upcoming visit to Moscow and a high-level inter-governmental commission to be held in St. Petersburg.

By the end of the day, Sechin had already inked more deals, conveniently for himself and for Russia, with the Venezuelan government – Bloomberg reports that Russia and Venezuela signed wide ranging cooperation accords on energy, military, and agricultural cooperation, including the formation of a joint venture between PDVSA-Services and Gazprom’s Latin America division.  What does Sechin personally get out of the trip?  He took a trip with his PDVSA counterpart Rafael Ramirez out to see an oil field in the Orinoco Belt which was once owned by U.S. firm ConocoPhillips before expropriation, announcing plans to unveil another joint venture to develop it with with Rosneft in September.

Joint ventures and big-sounding cooperation agreements are a familiar feature to observers of Russia-Venezuela relations (see some of our past blog posts), and the two countries have even formed a $4 billion development bank.  But other than arms purchases, the trade volume hasn’t yet caught up.  Venezuela exports some 60% of its oil to the United States, comprising 11% of U.S. supply.  The U.S. is by far their largest trade partner, and Russia’s volumes don’t compete with China.

The reason for all this fuss, of course, is that the relationship is political.