BP (BP / LN) to sell 20% of its cocuina gas field in Venezuela to Trinidad's National Gas Company, according to reports, citing sources
- 70% of gas will be used to produce LNG, with remaining amount directed to petrochemicals.
- Final investment decision could come by the end of the year, according to sources.
Cross-border gas deals involving Venezuela have historically been contingent less on commercial terms than on sanctions licensing, and that is the operative question here: upstream stakes in Venezuelan fields held by Western majors have in past episodes sat dormant for extended periods until specific authorisations were granted, with progress measured by licence renewals rather than corporate announcements. The structure is familiar from the regional pattern, Trinidad's gas-processing and LNG complex has repeatedly looked across the maritime border for feedstock as its own upstream output declined, and majors holding stranded Venezuelan acreage have used partial sell-downs to the national gas company as the politically workable route to monetisation. The 70/30 split between LNG feedstock and petrochemicals matters because it determines whether the incremental supply reaches the export market or is absorbed domestically, with Atlantic LNG liquefaction utilisation the relevant channel for seaborne balances. A stake sale of this size is not, on precedent, a cash-flow event for a major of BP's scale; it reads as positioning ahead of a final investment decision, and source-reported FID timelines in Venezuelan projects have tended to slip. The tells are any licensing or authorisation language attached to the deal, confirmation from the companies beyond sourced reporting, and whether the FID date firms up as year-end approaches.