ENERGY Minister Stuart Young was confident that the deal for TT to receive gas from Venezuela's Dragon gas field would not be stymied by conditions laid down by the US Government for this project, including how TT will pay for the gas and for how long would the project be exempted from US sanctions against the Venezuelan Government, initiated over alleged election rigging. He was addressing a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's.
In 2018, the Prime Minister and Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro danced in a conga line in the Miraflores Palace in Caracas after inking a deal for TT to buy Venezuelan gas and monetize it on the world market for the benefit of TT and Venezuela, but the project stalled when sanctions bit Maduro's regime.
However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago led to a western boycott of Russian oil and gas for which fresh suppliers had to be sourced, after which the US Government partially eased sanctions on Venezuela.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) gave a two-year waiver to allow let the Dragon deal.
Dr Keith Rowley on January 24 welcomed this as "a giant step forward," despite much work to do on the deal, but Maduro accused the US of colonialism and dictatorship for saying TT must use other means than money to pay for Venezuela's hydrocarbons.
Young said at the recent Caricom Heads meeting in The Bahamas, the US had reinvigorated its relationship with Caricom, in areas including energy.
He said within a few weeks he would visit Houston, Texas, for a week to meet US officials on energy.
"This morning I returned from my second visit to Venezuela since we've been provided with the OFAC licence to proceed with development of the Dragon field.
"I can tell you without getting into any details at this stage because it's premature that I will hopefully be leading a team and a delegation, of experts and technical persons in three weeks time, in the second week of March, back to Caracas for us to continue these conversations and negotiations that are step on the right pathway for us to be able to jointly develop the Dragon gas field and hopefully bring it to production in TT as well as in Venezuela."
Asked about Maduro's upset about payment methods, Young said Maduro had not singled out TT in his remarks.
"We have been in constant contact with the President Maduro Government at the highest levels including the President himself.
"I don't see there being an issue. There are always ways for us to proceed."
Young recalled a "very, very encouraging conversation" he had on Thursday morning in Caracas.
"I think it paved the way forward to be able to satisfy Venezuela and TT."
Newsday asked if the OFAC's two-year allowance was too short a time line to invest in the Dragon field, especially if the Ukraine War ends and sanctions are reimposed on Venezuela. Young said the Dragon deal had been long under way and was unrelated to any devel
