Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas giant, could become a key supplier to the United States under a potential ground-breaking deal with BP.

BP is understood to have offered Gazprom a stake in a key liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation in Trinidad and Tobago as part of a strategic alliance agreed earlier this summer. The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that a source working for BP’s Russian TNK-BP joint venture had revealed that Gazprom was considering the offer.

The Atlantic LNG operation in Trinidad and Tobago is the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas to the US, shipping 75 per cent of its production to the American market – one billion cubic feet a day. The venture was set up more than a decade ago, with BG Group and Spain’s Repsol among other shareholders. It runs four separate LNG “trains” and BP holds a stake of at least 34 per cent in each of the four.

A BP spokesman said: “We are having ongoing discussions with Gazprom as we announced we would and these discussions could cover any part of our portfolio.”

The two companies agreed to work together on gas investments in June when BP ceded control of Kovykta, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields, to its rival. BP had been under intense pressure to sell out of the Siberian project and is likely to receive only $900 million (£449 million). Analysts had valued the Kovykta field at £3 billion.

Asset swaps have become an increasingly popular option for some of the world’s biggest energy companies to boost the size of operations.

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