BP to develop offshore gasfield in Venezuela with firms linked to Trump administration

Read the original at The Guardian ↗
Cite

correspondent, J. A. E. (2026, August 18). BP to develop offshore gasfield in Venezuela with firms linked to Trump administration. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/14/bp-offshore-gasfield-venezuela-donald-trump

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

The Guardian · collected 2026-08-18 · by Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent

Quick Summary

BP plans to develop a large offshore gasfield in Venezuela with two firms linked to the Trump administration. The development will be part of the second phase of the Loran gasfield, which BP holds a licence for alongside a Qatari company and UAE's national oil company. This is one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January. BP's chief executive, Meg O'Neill, described the licence as an "important step forward" in the company's collaboration with Caracas.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-18, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

BP, a London-listed oil company, has announced plans to develop a large offshore gasfield in Venezuela, marking one of the first major foreign investments in the country since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January. BP will partner with two oil firms that have close ties to the Trump administration: a Qatari company owned by the Al-Khayyat brothers, who are also working on a resort project with Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner in Albania, and the overseas investment arm of the UAE's national oil company, run by Sultan Al Jaber, who had previously promised Donald Trump that the UAE would increase its investments in the US energy sector to $440bn (£325bn) by 2025. This deal makes BP one of the first large-scale international oil firms to return to Venezuela since rival Shell secured a licence for the first phase of the Loran field earlier this year.

Written for “Venezuela Offshore Gas Development” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Venezuela Offshore Gas Development
World · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

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How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
16
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 16 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
67/100
The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
World
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-08-18 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Guardian · 1950 article(s) · 5 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent
8 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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🔮 With elections due next year in eight EU countries including France, Italy, Spain and Poland, leaders are scrambling to head off the potential fallout from what analysts have warned could be one of the continent’s biggest energy shocks in decades.
🔮 BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
Also by Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 8 articles by Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent →

Topics

Caracas ExxonMobil London Loran Venezuela

Subjects

Venezuela GPE · 9× Trump PERSON · 3× Caracas GPE · 2× ExxonMobil ORG · 2× Loran GPE · 2× O’Neill PERSON · 2× Donald Trump’s PERSON · 1× London GPE · 1× Nicolás Maduro PERSON · 1× Qatari NORP · 1×

Narrative

The London-listed oil company holds a licence to develop the field alongside a Qatari company owned by the Al-Khayyat brothers, the Syrian-born billionaires working with Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, to build a controversial multibillion-dollar resort in Albania.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-18
🔮 BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

Claims (16 extracted, 0 hedged)

BP has answered Donald Trump’s call for oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry with new plans to develop a large offshore gasfield. asserted
companies → answer → gasfield
BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January. asserted
US → partner → January
The London-listed oil company holds a licence to develop the field alongside a Qatari company owned by the Al-Khayyat brothers, the Syrian-born billionaires working with Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, to build a controversial multibillion-dollar resort in Albania. asserted
company → list → Albania
BP will also work alongside the overseas investment arm of UAE’s national oil company run by the industry minister, Sultan Al Jaber, who in 2025 promised Trump that the Gulf state would increase its investments in the US energy sector more than sixfold to $440bn (£325bn) within a decade. asserted
state → work → decade
The deal makes BP one of the first large-scale international oil firms to return to Venezuela after rival Shell secured a licence to develop the first phase of the Loran field earlier this summer. asserted
Shell → make → field
Meg O’Neill, BP’s chief executive, described the licence as “an important step forward” in the company’s collaboration with Caracas, which “reflects the progress we have made together”. asserted
we → describe → progress
BP is one of a handful of European oil firms that have returned to the basin since Trump called for foreign oil companies to invest “at least $100bn” to help rebuild and tap Venezuela’s oil resources after capturing the country’s former president. asserted
companies → return → president
The US oil companies ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have begun scouting opportunities in Venezuela, but have been slower to play a role in its fossil fuel revival after the Latin American country nationalised the industry in 2007. asserted
country → begin → 2007
Chevron remained in the country as a minority partner to Venezuela’s state oil company and has continued to produce crude. asserted
Chevron → remain → crude
BP’s licence was awarded almost four months after it agreed to work with the Venezuelan government to explore potential gas development. asserted
it → award → development
It was also one of the first big agreements struck by O’Neill, a US-born former ExxonMobil executive, in her first month at the helm. asserted
It → strike → helm
O’Neill said: “BP has a longstanding presence in the region and deep experience developing major gas resources. asserted
BP → say → resources
Together, these agreements provide a strong foundation to progress Venezuela’s offshore gas potential and unlock the next phase of development.” asserted
agreements → provide → development
Venezuela is believed to have the largest oil reserves of any country in the world, and in the late 1990s produced more than 3.5m barrels of a oil a day as one of the top 10 crude producers in the world. asserted
Venezuela → believe → world
However, a quarter of a century of neglect, underinvestment and corruption have eroded its oil industry and caused output to fall to roughly 1m barrels a day. asserted
output → erode → barrels
In the months since the Trump administration seized control of Venezuela’s oil industry, oil output has climbed to 1.2m barrels a day, allowing exports to US refineries to reach their highest level since 2019. asserted
exports → seize → 2019
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