Caracas, Sep 12 (IANS/EFE): Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago have signed a deal to develop three gas fields that span their maritime border and contain reserves totaling nearly 12 trillion cubic feet.

"We've signed the accords for (the Loran-Manatee bloc, the largest of the three), and today we signed (the accord governing) how we're going to operate those fields," Venezuela's Rafael Ramirez, who heads state-owned oil giant PDVSA, said Wednesday.

Ramirez had said last week that an agreement had been reached to develop Loran-Manatee, which alone has reserves totaling more than 10 trillion cubic feet, via a joint venture between PDVSA and US energy major Chevron.

He said that in the other two fields, whose reserves total just over 1 trillion cubic feet, "the technical part has been concluded" and only the "legal part" was pending before the development phase could begin.

Ramirez added that the two countries have held "several meetings" aimed at expanding their energy cooperation.

Trinidadian Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine hailed the fact that "finally Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela are going to develop this gas" in their maritime border region.

The development of the Loran-Manatee field, 73.75 percent of which is in Venezuela's territorial waters and 26.25 percent in that of Trinidad and Tobago, would be carried out from Venezuela's side, Ramirez said.

To transport the gas, a nearly 270-km pipeline would be built to Venezuela's Paria Peninsula to link up with the nearby Gran Mariscal Sucre gas project, he added.

Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago are part of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum that also includes Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Equatorial Guinea and the United Arab Emirates.

These countries account for nearly half of all global exports of conventional gas and 65 percent of proven gas reserves.