The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is reportedly becoming increasingly unhappy over what has become a protracted delay in moving ahead with the channelling of natural gas to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member country from Venezuela, under the so-called Dragon gas extraction project, between the two countries.
The April 26 edition of the Trinidad and Tobago daily, The Express, notes than it has been “more than a month” since the signing of what it described as “a confidentiality agreement” between the two countries “on the extraction and movement of the natural gas” but that the project “is nowhere closer to bringing much needed natural gas from Venezuela to these shores”.
Several weeks ago, the Stabroek Business had reported briefly on a visit made to Caracas by T&T Oil Minister, Stuart Young, to hold talks with the Venezuelan authorities preparatory to the commencement of the exercise to extract the gas and move it to Trinidad and Tobago. Back in 2018 Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela had signed a US$1 billion deal under which it was agreed that T&T would harvest natural gas from the Dragon Field in Venezuela, which is estimated to produce approximately 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day. The plan had included the creation of a billion-dollar pipeline to transport the gas to T&T with the two countries sharing ownership of the facilities associated with the exercise.
Last Wednesday’s Express reports that negotiations between the two countries designed to move ahead have been at a standstill because the T&T government is awaiting “to see what happens in Venezuela with respect to the present crackdown on corruption before it tries to engage the South American neighbour.” The negotiations appear to have ‘gone cold’ since T&T’s Oil Minister and his Permanent Secre-tary, Penelope Bradshaw-Niles, went to Caracas for the signing of the No- Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
The delay in the rolling out of the Dragon project is thought to be linked to Caracas’ preoccupation with the process associated with a major crackdown on corruption in the country’s energy industry that led to the resignation of the country’s then Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami. The Express report describes the latest holdup of the project as “the latest blow in a project that should have been flowing natural gas to T&T already,” noting that, “T&T is desperate for more hydrocarbons to meet its installed LNG and petrochemical plants.”
