BP returns to Venezuela with Gulf partners as post-Maduro energy opening speeds up

NEW: BP returns to Venezuela, winning a licence to develop the offshore Loran gas field alongside UAE and Qatar-backed partners, as the country's energy sector reopens to foreign investors following the US capture of Nicolas Maduro.

BP is going back into Venezuela.

The British oil major has won a licence to develop the Loran gas field, a huge offshore deposit, and it's not going in alone. Partners backed by the UAE and Qatar are on the ticket too, which tells you Gulf money smells the same opportunity.

And the reason any of this is possible is the man who isn't there anymore. Nicolas Maduro, captured by the United States, and with him gone the doors to the world's largest proven oil reserves are swinging open faster than anyone expected. Western majors spent years writing Venezuela off as uninvestable. Now they're queuing.

Here's what I'd hold onto. Venezuela sits on more oil than Saudi Arabia on paper, and for a decade almost nobody could touch it. If BP and the Gulf funds are comfortable putting capital in now, this is the starting gun for the biggest energy land rush of the decade.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at euronews.com