Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s combative leftist president, announced a “very large” offshore natural gas find on Friday, which he said would propel the country into the ranks of the world’s biggest gas producers.

Mr Chávez, who met the Spanish king and prime minister at the end of a controversial international tour in which he was offered tanks and other weapons by Russia, said an area in the Gulf of Venezuela being explored by Repsol of Spain and Eni of Italy could yield seven to eight trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas – four times previous estimates.