SANTIAGO, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Chile's state National Petroleum Company and its Ecuadorian counterpart, Petroecuador, have agreed to jointly explore for gas reserves, the two nations' presidents announced Monday.

    No details of the agreement were immediately made public, but visiting Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced in a joint press conference with his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, that the project will be carried out in the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador and off Peru's Pacific coast.

    The deal will help Chile "because it will be able to guarantee its energy sources," Correa said.

    Bachelet described the agreement as "bearing great importance for Ecuador and also for Chile," a nation that has suffered power cuts due to natural gas shortages in the past.

    Chile imports nearly all of its fuels and receives a dwindling and increasingly unreliable supply of natural gas from Argentina, its only gas supplier.