Energy experts welcome thawing of T&T/Venezuela relations

An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

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Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lat­est en­gage­ment with Venezuela could sig­nal the be­gin­ning of a thaw in re­la­tions be­tween the two coun­tries fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of height­ened diplo­mat­ic ten­sions that dis­rupt­ed en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion.

En­er­gy ex­pert and for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan be­lieves the meet­ing may have pro­vid­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ease ten­sions and be­gin re­build­ing clos­er ties be­tween Port-of-Spain and Cara­cas.

“In a re­lease from the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs, it ap­pears that this meet­ing was in­tend­ed to es­tab­lish mea­sures to im­prove bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela,” Seep­er­sad-Bachan said yes­ter­day.

The dis­cus­sions cov­ered a wide range of is­sues, in­clud­ing trade, eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion, agri­cul­ture and fish­eries, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, and en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty.

How­ev­er, Seep­er­sad-Bachan stressed that en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion should re­main a pri­or­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly af­ter the En­er­gy Co­op­er­a­tion Frame­work Agree­ment was sus­pend­ed last year amid diplo­mat­ic ten­sions.

“I would hope there was an op­por­tu­ni­ty, giv­en that the En­er­gy Co­op­er­a­tion Frame­work Agree­ment was sus­pend­ed last year be­cause of the diplo­mat­ic ten­sions that emerged,” she said.

She ex­pressed hope that the lat­est en­gage­ment in­clud­ed dis­cus­sions on re­in­stat­ing the agree­ment, which pro­vides a frame­work for col­lab­o­ra­tive en­er­gy ini­tia­tives be­tween the two coun­tries.

The agree­ment is con­sid­ered sig­nif­i­cant for fu­ture co­op­er­a­tion in the ex­plo­ration and de­vel­op­ment of en­er­gy re­sources and could pro­vide a struc­tured ba­sis for re­newed col­lab­o­ra­tion.

The meet­ing comes against the back­drop of a sharp de­te­ri­o­ra­tion in re­la­tions in 2025, when Venezuela sus­pend­ed en­er­gy agree­ments with T&T amid ac­cu­sa­tions of hos­tile ac­tions by Port-of-Spain.

Re­la­tions were fur­ther strained af­ter T&T host­ed a Unit­ed States war­ship in­volved in op­er­a­tions tar­get­ing Venezue­lan ves­sels al­leged­ly linked to drug traf­fick­ing. Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro sub­se­quent­ly ac­cused T&T of al­low­ing its ter­ri­to­ry to be used to ad­vance US in­ter­ests. Maduro and his wife were lat­er tak­en to the US to face drug charges af­ter a US mil­i­tary op­er­a­tion in Cara­cas.

Seep­er­sad-Bachan said she be­lieves the lat­est talks may have helped to ease the diplo­mat­ic ten­sions that emerged last year and pave the way for health­i­er bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions.

De­spite the ear­li­er ten­sions, there have al­so been signs of con­tin­u­ing hu­man­i­tar­i­an co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the two coun­tries.

In June, act­ing Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez thanked T&T and oth­er Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) mem­ber states for hu­man­i­tar­i­an as­sis­tance fol­low­ing a dev­as­tat­ing dou­ble earth­quake on June 24 that killed thou­sands and left many more home­less.

While in­spect­ing re­lief sup­plies sent to Venezuela, Ro­dríguez ex­pressed grat­i­tude to Cari­com lead­ers, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, for sup­port­ing the South Amer­i­can na­tion dur­ing the cri­sis.

The re­gion­al re­lief ef­fort in­clud­ed 88 con­tain­ers of emer­gency sup­plies, along with med­ical per­son­nel and equip­ment. The aid was co­or­di­nat­ed by Guyana and shipped to Venezuela from there.

En­er­gy sec­tor ex­pert Dr Thack­wray “Dax” Dri­ver al­so yes­ter­day wel­comed the lat­est en­gage­ment, de­scrib­ing the meet­ing as “very pos­i­tive.”

“There is ob­vi­ous­ly a lot hap­pen­ing very quick­ly in Venezuela, and I think that bodes well for the fu­ture of the gas in­dus­try in Trinidad,” Dri­ver said.

He ex­pressed hope that the meet­ing would be the first of many bi­lat­er­al en­gage­ments be­tween the two coun­tries in the months and years ahead.

“I think this is a pos­i­tive move,” Dri­ver added.