Venezuela has begun contacting energy companies involved in a long-abandoned offshore gas project to urge them to begin new exploration and operations near its maritime border with Guyana, five people close to the talks told Reuters.

The request to operate in the perimeters, which have not been serviced for more than a decade, comes amid a growing territorial dispute with Guyana that has rocked the country and led to an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro wants state oil company PDVSA and major oil producers BP, Chevron and Shell to restart an offshore project with large gas reserves.

Called Plataforma Deltana, the project was never developed due to insufficient capital, unfinished efforts with Trinidad and Tobago to share the waters that span the perimeter, and a lack of clear rules for investment.

In 2019, the two countries gave permission to Shell to develop part of the largest reservoir called Manatee in Trinidad, with a final investment decision expected next year and gas production to begin in 2028.

Maduro recently reversed that decision, telling the Trinidadian government in public comments in September that the fields should be jointly developed. His government and PDVSA began contacting companies to gauge their interest.

Chevron was the only company to explore the Delta Platform.

In recent years, Russia’s Rosneft explored another perimeter but did not complete work in the area, and TotalEnergies and Equinor returned the perimeter to Venezuela after a non-commercial discovery.

According to another person familiar with the matter, BP and the Trinidadian government expect to begin talks with Venezuela about joint gas production at Manakin once Manatee talks, which have already begun, are completed.

Chevron is in talks with Venezuela to obtain a license, two of the people said.

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Venezuela has its eye on Guyana’s oil reserves

The maritime border between the two countries is also disputed

A consortium led by Exxon Mobil began drilling for oil off the coast of Guyana in late 2019 and exported it the following year. Guyana, which currently produces about 400,000 barrels of oil and gas per day, this year received new proposals to develop its reserves from both local and international companies in the first round of tenders.

Licenses for the exploration of new areas have not yet been signed.

Although Venezuela has the richest oil reserves in the world, it has great problems in developing them due to decades of corruption, state control over the economy and the departure of Western investors who have been hurt by the nationalization of their businesses in the South American country and the introduction of sanctions against the regime in Caracas.

Venezuela is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that seems never-ending, but Nicolas Maduro has managed to stay in power after elections widely condemned by the international community as rigged. The referendum organized by his government on Guyana Essequiba took place just over a month before the presidential elections in Venezuela.

Nicolás Maduro is an ally of Russia and President Vladimir Putin in South America, and relations between Caracas and Moscow have grown closer since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, the Kremlin announced that Maduro would visit Moscow this month on an official visit.

“It is too early to announce the date. Some time ago, we agreed that Mr. Maduro could visit Moscow in December, and as for the dates, it seems that we will confirm them in the coming days,” said Yuriy Ushakov, one of Vladimir Putin’s advisers in the Kremlin, TASS quotes.