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CARACAS/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil ministry last month turned down a proposal by BP to buy Total stake in a promising but inactive natural gas project along the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago, five people briefed on the matter said.
BP owns the rights to the Trinidadian side of the gas play. It could have used the output from the neighboring area, the Deltana Platform's fourth block off Venezuela's eastern coast, to feed its growing operations on the island, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The rejection highlights how Venezuela's socialist government, often hostile to foreign companies, remains an obstacle to investment even as oil majors eye the OPEC nation's barely tapped gas reserves to expand their liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolios.
The ministry told the parties the area's reserves needed to be re-estimated, an argument it has used to reject other deals.
BP owns the rights to the Trinidadian side of the gas play. It could have used the output from the neighboring area, the Deltana Platform's fourth block off Venezuela's eastern coast, to feed its growing operations on the island, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The rejection highlights how Venezuela's socialist government, often hostile to foreign companies, remains an obstacle to investment even as oil majors eye the OPEC nation's barely tapped gas reserves to expand their liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolios.
The ministry told the parties the area's reserves needed to be re-estimated, an argument it has used to reject other deals.