Aug 13 (Reuters) – BP, in partnership with United Arab Emirates’ firm XRG and a unit of Qatar’s conglomerate UCC Holding, has secured a license to explore and develop the second phase of Venezuela’s offshore Loran gas field, the British company and government officials said on Thursday.
The agreement, signed in Caracas and broadcast on state TV, gives the BP-led group rights to produce up to 4 trillion cubic feet of gas in Loran, whose total reserves are estimated in 7.3 TCF.
The first phase’s license was granted in June to British Shell. Both phases are expected to be developed in parallel, BP said in a statement.
BP will operate the second-phase project, in which it holds equal working interests with UCC Holding’s oil and gas unit and XRG, owned by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), BP added.
“We should not only push for the country’s oil development, but for growing our gas resources,” oil minister Paula Henao said during the signing ceremony.
BP had inked a memorandum of understanding with Venezuela’s government in April, which established a framework for cooperation in exploration and development in the Plataforma Deltana offshore project, which includes the Loran field.
Loran builds on XRG’s strategy to establish a gas and liquefied natural gas platform across Latin America, the company said in a separate release.
Loran extends into the Shell-operated Manatee field in Trinidad and Tobago, where Venezuela’s gas plans to be industrialized and turned into LNG. Together, the fields hold 10 some TCF of recoverable gas.
Shell has already begun developing Manatee, with first gas expected next year, and will follow with Loran’s first phase for a total of 4.4 TCF of gas to be produced from both.
BP and Venezuelan officials on Thursday also signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate exploration opportunities at the Carupano East block, part of the Mariscal Sucre maritime area off the country’s Northeastern coast.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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