Former Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee reacted to the US Government's withdrawal of Trinidad and Tobago's OFAC licences for the Dragon and Cocuina part of the Cocuina-Manakin gas fields by saying that for the past ten years, the Opposition has been warning government of such an eventuality.
He spoke to Newsday on April 8, mere moments after Prime Minister Stuart Young broke the sudden news at a media conference at Whitehall, St Ann's.
In 2023, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) gave TT a two-year licence to develop the Dragon field while Venezuela granted TT a 30-year licence for that field. That licence was due to expire in October of this year.
In 2024, OFAC granted a specific licence for the National Gas Company, bp and the government to negotiate an agreement to develop the cross border Manakin-Coquina field with Venezuela.
"We told the government that they had to do things properly with these licences and the new Trump administration."
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Lee said the opposition warned the government against "placing all their eggs in one basket with (Venezuelan president Nicolas) Maduro."
Lee continued, "They should have – and I keep repeating it once more – for the last ten years this government should have been incentivising energy companies in Trinidad to continue drilling and exploring within our territorial waters.
"The Opposition kept saying we have no problem if you get the gas from Venezuela, but not at the expense of jeopardising our own exploration and drilling in our own territorial waters.
"So we are not surprised. We told this government that this could happen. We told this government that a new (American) administration is a whole different ball game."
Lee recalled Young's recent meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
"Even when Stuart Young met with Rubio, if you listened to Rubio, he was sending a subtle warning to this government.
"So we are not surprised and we told this government that for the last ten years, when Stuart Young started to play with Maduro, that you are jeopardising the welfare of TT at the expense of our own exploration and drilling in our own territorial waters." Lee said all the money put out by energy firms Shell and bp was now in jeopardy. "It is money that could have been spent elsewhere, within our own territorial waters." Efforts to reach Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for a comment on Tuesday evening proved futile.
