Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will travel to Ecuador Thursday to sign an agreement that will allow state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, to team up with Petroecuador to build a refinery, Ecuador's Mining and Oil Minister Galo Chiriboga said Monday.

"On Thursday we will sign the agreement, but the details have not yet been defined," Chiriboga told Dow Jones Newswires. "We are discussing the terms of the partnership. The two companies must present their proposals and we hope to define the details in the short term."

The new refinery will be built in the coastal province of Manabi and could cost between $4 billion and $5 billion. The aim is to process 300,000 barrels of heavy crude a day.

Meanwhile, Chiriboga didn't rule out companies like Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR) - or Petrobras - and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNP) participating in the project.

Meanwhile, Carlos Pareja, the executive president of Petroecuador, told Dow Jones Newswires Monday that the idea is to have the "highest possible number of South American state companies join the project in order to create a great joint venture company."

Pareja also mentioned Petrobras and Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol and Uruguay's ANCAP.

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