BP and the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment signed a mem­o­ran­dum of un­der­stand­ing (MoU) for the ex­plo­ration of nat­ur­al gas in the Lo­ran off­shore area, in­ter­na­tion­al news agen­cies re­port­ed yes­ter­day.

The MoU es­tab­lish­es “po­ten­tial ar­eas for co-op­er­a­tion in ma­te­r­i­al gas and fu­ture ex­plo­ration,” BP said yes­ter­day in an emailed state­ment. Venezuela state firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA al­so an­nounced the pact.

The deal fol­lowed an en­er­gy con­fer­ence in Cara­cas that drew a large turnout from in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies and in­vestors. Eu­ro­pean oil com­pa­nies have been par­tic­u­lar­ly keen to ad­vance in Venezuela. Ital­ian ma­jor Eni SpA an­nounced an oil project on Tues­day and has a plan to start ex­port­ing nat­ur­al gas with Spain’s Rep­sol SA start­ing in 2031.

“The re­turn of BP is a clear sign ​of the fu­ture we want to ​chart for Venezuela and for in­ter­na­tion­al en­er­gy re­la­tions—re­la­tion­ships ‌based on re­spect, co­op­er­a­tion ground­ed in a win-win ap­proach, and shared ben­e­fits that con­tribute to the de­vel­op­ment of the Venezue­lan peo­ple,” ​act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez said ​at the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

BP ex­ec­u­tive William Lin said the com­pa­ny was pleased to be part­ners with Venezuela on the ex­plo­ration ​of the Lo­ran area, ​as well as oth­er projects, in­clud­ing the com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of gas.