LondonAdvocacy outlet Declassified UK reports BP and Shell signed Venezuelan agreements since January.
They followed the US seizure of Nicolás Maduro, which UN experts called a deliberate violation of international law.
Declassified says Foreign Office documents show high-level executive meetings, while interim president Delcy Rodríguez welcomed foreign companies and softened hydrocarbon law.
Britain and Venezuela planned this month to upgrade diplomatic representation to ambassador level.
How each outlet framed it
- Declassified UK leans critical
- documents UK Foreign Office facilitation of BP and Shell's return to Venezuela after Maduro's kidnapping, frames this as profit-driven complicity in alleged international law violation
Sources: Declassified UK