bp signs agreement with Venezuela to develop offshore gas fields
bp will develop Venezuela’s Cocuina-Manakin gas field, on the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago, as well as explore joint opportunities in the offshore Loran gas field, the company and government said after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on April 29.
As reported by Reuters, Venezuela has recently signed exploration and other deals with several international producers, including Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol, as it opens its oil industry to foreign investment.
Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez told attendees at a signing ceremony that: “The return of bp is a clear sign of the future we want to chart for Venezuela and for international energy relations — relationships based on respect, cooperation grounded in a win-win approach, and shared benefits that contribute to the development of the Venezuelan people.”
William Lin, bp’s executive vice president for gas and low carbon energy, said the company was pleased to be partners with Venezuela on the exploration of the Loran area, as well as on other projects, including the commercialization of gas. Shell has also expressed interest in Loran.
The MoU signed on Wednesday also “formalized the launch of gas development at the Cocuina-Manakin field,” a gas field that crosses the border between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, Rodriguez’s office said in a statement.
Cocuina, on the Venezuelan side of the field, is part of the inactive Deltana Platform project. Manakin, the Trinidad side of the field, is operated by a bp subsidiary.
Rodriguez’s office said that the agreement “represents a milestone for the national energy industry by reactivating the multinational’s presence in key areas of the Deltana Platform.”
bp said in February it was seeking a license from the US government to develop the Manakin-Cocuina gas field. The company wants to develop the field to bring more than 1 trillion cubic feet of gas to Trinidad to convert into liquefied natural gas for export.
Related content:
About the Author
Bruce Beaubouef
Managing Editor
Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.