BP returns to Venezuela with Gulf partners as post-Maduro energy opening accelerates
BP has signed an agreement in Caracas to operate the second phase of the offshore Loran gas project, alongside partners from Abu Dhabi and Qatar. The deal marks the latest sign that Venezuela's energy industry is reopening to foreign investment after Nicolás Maduro's removal.
British energy company BP signed a deal in Caracas on Thursday that gives it operatorship of the second phase of the offshore gas project Loran, which holds more than four trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves. The company will be joined by Abu Dhabi's XRG and Qatar's UCC Oil and Gas Holding, each taking equal stakes. The licence remains subject to regulatory approval.
PDVSA Gas, the gas arm of the state producer, transferred part of its interest to XRG, the international investment vehicle of Abu Dhabi's ADNOC. For both XRG and UCC, a unit of the Qatari conglomerate with the same name, this is their first entry into Venezuela.
Loran forms the Venezuelan part of the Loran-Manatee accumulation, which straddles the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago and holds about ten trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in total. Shell won the licence for the first phase in June and is separately developing Manatee on the Trinidadian side, where first gas is expected next year. BP says both Venezuelan phases will now be developed in parallel. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding covering exploration at the Carúpano East Block.
The agreements were concluded during a visit to Caracas by CEO Meg O'Neill and David Campbell, BP's senior vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The licences are the product of a bargain struck with Washington. After US forces seized Maduro in January, interim president Delcy Rodríguez rewrote the country's energy law at the Trump administration's urging, opening the world's largest proven oil reserves to foreign companies. In return, the US relaxed sanctions that had frozen most Western investment, including licences it revoked from BP, Shell and Chevron in 2025. Eni, Repsol and Shell have all signed since.
The awards process stalled after the earthquakes of 24 June, which killed more than 6,300 people, and resumed only on Thursday, when the three Loran permits were issued and the agreements signed. At the ceremony, broadcast on state television, Rodríguez said she had a special interest in gas to promote national development.
BP is not a newcomer: it held a licence for the Cocuina field from 2024, before Washington withdrew its permission to use it.
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