Prime Minister Stuart Young says he has been in touch with the Venezuelan government.
This is in the wake of the United States revoking Trinidad and Tobago’s Office of Foreign Assets Control licence to develop cross-border gas fields.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Stuart Young called a Media Conference to confirm that the United States had revoked this country’s OFAC licence, which halted progress in the Dragon and Cocuina-Manakin gas deals. The fields belong to Venezuela and sit in territorial waters.
Later in the day, as he addressed a People’s National Movement meeting in Point Fortin, the Prime Minister reiterated that Dragon is not this country’s only gas project.
“I was in touch with the government of Venezuelan on the way down here. Commitment there and then having conversations as well with some of the decision-makers we need to speak to on the way down here as well. So you give us the mandate, and I will bring it home in some form or fashion for us. All of our eggs are not in the Dragon basket.”
The Prime Minister noted that the Manatee gas project is expected to begin producing in 2027, and he pointed to other important projects.
“There is now a Nigerian firm that is a billion-dollar US firm that has gotten the opportunity to negotiate with TPHL to reopen that refinery because it will re-employ our workers. They’re going to use local labour.”
Prime Minister Young told PNM party supporters that “everything will be fine” and there are a lot of projects underway in Trinidad and Tobago’s territorial waters.