Responding to former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine saying the revived Dragon gas deal may take as much as four years before gas arrives in TT, Energy Minister Stuart Young said Ramnarine knows nothing about the issue.

“Kevin Ramnarine is a failed minister of energy,” Young said.

“His mismanagement of the country’s gas sector left NGC with over $9 billion in claims. He never negotiated a gas supply contract, and left NGC rolling month-to-month contracts with off takers.

“He has no clue about Dragon and its development, and certainly is not an authority on how it will be produced. It is premature at this time to state timelines, save to say that the granting of the OFAC license is monumental and great for Trinidad and Tobago. As we can provide more specifics we will.”

Young was responding to questions coming out of Ramnarine’s statements in Thursday’s Newsday.

Saying TT may have to wait three to four years before gas is received from the Dragon field, Ramnarine opined a lot still has to be done before the gas gets flowing.

“One is the commercial arrangement between Shell, the National Gas company (NGC) and the Venezuelan government. That in itself will take time to negotiate.”

He added that getting a project to a final investment decision is also time consuming and could take years to complete.

On Tuesday the Prime Minister announced that the US gave an exemption from sanction to TT to produce gas from the Dragon gas field.

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