Bharat Petroleum To Open Singapore Trading Desk, Expand Crude, LNG, Fuels Trade.

New Delhi; January 2026: India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) will set up a trading desk in Singapore from February 2026 fecilitating its expansion while dealings in crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined fuels, its Chairman, Sanjay Khanna, said on Thursday (29th January 2026). He said the company will initially delve with 05 employees in Singapore.

“Our team will identify opportunities for us and can help other companies as well if required”, Khanna told reporters at the India Energy Week conference. He also said the company will buy Venezuelan oil. BPCL can process up to 15% Venezuelan crude at its Bina and Kochi refineries, he added.

The move comes when the lawmakers in Venezuela yesterday approved in a final vote a sweeping reform of Venezuela’s main oil law after sweetening a proposal by interim President Delcy Rodriguez to lower taxes, expand the oil ministry’s decision power, grant autonomy for private producers and make possible asset transfers and outsourcings.

The changes are expected to encourage increases in oil and gas production and foreign investment following a $100 billion reconstruction plan for the industry proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump this month after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The fast-tracked reform to the backbone of the country’s oil industry follows 20 years of strict nationalisation and expropriation of assets previously owned by foreign companies including U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, which have not been fully compensated after years of arbitrations and lawsuits.

“We have achieved the unanimous approval of a hydrocarbons law reform that will make hiring domestic and foreign companies to extract resources from the world’s largest oil reserve more competitive”, said National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez.

As promised by U.S. officials, Trump’s administration eased sanctions on the Venezuelan energy industry related to its oil exports through a general license shortly after the reform approval. The proposal was submitted, discussed and approved in less than two weeks. Trump said he would control Venezuela’s oil revenue indefinitely following a flagship $2 billion supply deal between Caracas and Washington.

Many potential oil investors viewed the reform as “good enough” to encourage initial investment to recover the OPEC country’s depleted industry, while former Venezuelan officials have called it unconstitutional. The new law will allow private producers to operate projects under new oil contracts or in joint ventures, even if they are the minority stakeholders. They are gaining long-sought autonomy to commercialize output and cash proceeds out of state company PDVSA’s control.

The reform also formalises an oil production sharing model first introduced by Maduro and negotiated with little-known energy firms in recent years. Politicians and experts have warned about the secrecy of those deals and the potential for corruption due to loose regulation.

Proposals made at the last minute by opposition lawmakers to grant transparency, limit the ministry’s powers and maintain the National Assembly approval power for oil contracts were rejected. The legislature’s energy committee received some 120 proposals to modify the law, said lawmaker Orlando Camacho, who is allied with the government. Washington did not recognise the legitimacy of the election of Venezuela’s National Assembly. The U.S. also rejected other voting processes in the country that had little participation and a lack of international observation.

The possibility of transferring oil assets currently owned and operated by state oil firm PDVSA, and to outsource the operation of oilfields under the new contract model was added recently to the reform.

Those production-sharing contracts are expected to be signed as the government makes an evaluation over the next six months of dozens of PDVSA-controlled oil and gas joint ventures, the model that has dominated the industry since the previous hydrocarbons law was approved in 2001.

The National Assembly lost its previous approval authority over contracts, with the oil ministry – currently also controlled by Rodriguez – taking over almost all power to sign contracts and greenlight any term changes.

Finally, the Donald Trump administration on Thursday eased some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry to encourage U.S. investment, after U.S. forces ousted the South American country’s President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. The U.S. Treasury have authorised transactions involving the government of Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA related to “the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil, including the refining of such oil, by an established U.S. entity”.

The authorization, known as a general license, did not include language lifting sanctions on production of Venezuelan oil. A White House official confirmed the measure kept sanctions on production of Venezuelan crude, adding it “would help flow existing product” and that there will soon be more announcements on easing of sanctions.

The move could unlock billions of dollars in new U.S. investment into Venezuela’s crippled energy sector, but it excludes firms from rivals like China and Russia, signaling an “America First” approach to the nation’s reconstruction. The easing of some sanctions marks a pronounced shift from the previous strategy of granting individual exemptions.

• The license does not authorise any payment terms that are not commercially reasonable, involve debt swaps or payments in gold, or are denominated in digital currency.

• The license further excludes any transactions involving persons or entities located in or controlled by Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.

• The license also excludes transactions involving blocked vessels and entities “organised under the laws of Venezuela or the United States that is owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by or in a joint venture with a person located in or organised under the laws of the People’s Republic of China”.

Team Maverick.