Regarded by both Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela as an important lifeline in circumstances where both countries are experiencing economic pressures, the Dragon Gas Field Project, under which the two countries stand to benefit from the recovery of the gas field situated in Venezuelan territory, the likelihood, or otherwise, of the project moving ahead may become an issue again with the return of Donald Trump to a second tilt at the United States presidency following his victory at the polls earlier this month.
With relations between Washington and Caracas having ‘cooled’ somewhat under the presidency of Joe Biden, the return of Trump to the White House, many analysts believe, may rekindle what had been the mutually hostile posture of the two capitals to each other under the earlier Trump administration.
While the so-called Dragon Gas Project is seen in both Port-of-Spain and Caracas as important to the two economies that are both experiencing difficulties, Washington with President Trump in the White House, is believed to be likely to return to a condition of frostiness with Trump moving to stifle the Project, throwing a spanner into the works by re-kindling its ire over President Nicholas Maduro being returned to office earlier this year.
Back in September 2023, the governments of Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago struck a profit-sharing agreement that allowed them to jointly exploit the Dragon gas field, with Trinidad exporting natural gas from the PDVSA project. Washington, however, has never concealed its uneasiness over Venezuela, under the Maduro administration, benefitting from the project. The Dragon field is located in Venezuela’s territorial waters, is believed to contain approximately 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and could serve as an energy lifeline for Trinidad and Tobago at a time when its petro resources are widely believed to be dwindling rapidly. A protracted period of to-ing and fro-ing between Washington and Port-of-Spain eventually led to the latter being given the ‘green light’ to develop the Dragon field though the conditions of the arrangement dictated that the state-run Venezuela PDVSA not receive payments in cash from the gas recovered from the Dragon Gas Field.
