Shell and BP are seeking U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control licenses to extract natural gas from fields in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, the Caribbean country's energy minister Roodal Moonilal said on Wednesday.
Shell is seeking a license to develop the Loran-Manatee discovery, Moonilal told reporters on the sidelines of the Indian Energy Week conference. The field holds some 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with 7.3 tcf on Venezuela's side and the remaining 2.7 tcf in Trinidad.
BP is seeking a license to develop the Cocuina-Manakin field, he added, whose Venezuelan portion belongs to the idled gas offshore project Plataforma Deltana which has 1 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves.
Shell and BP did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Trinidad is Latin America's largest liquefied natural gas exporter and one of the world's largest exporters of ammonia and methanol, but the Caribbean island has been aiming to develop offshore fields in Venezuela and on the maritime border to counter its declining reserves and secure supply.
Venezuela under President Nicolas Maduro last year suspended energy-development cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago, including joint natural gas projects in the works, but the U.S. is accelerating developments in Venezuela's oil and gas sector after capturing Maduro this month.
"The United States is an ally and a very strong friend trying to reform, so we would help the companies when it comes to supporting their applications," Moonilal said.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Anjana Anil; Additional reporting and writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Jan Harvey)