PM non-commital on T&T’s energy future despite Maduro’s indictment in US

An­drea Perez-Sobers
Se­nior Re­porter
an­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has made it clear that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion on the Drag­on gas field re­mains un­changed, de­spite the re­moval of Venezuela Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro and re­newed spec­u­la­tion about whether the stalled project may now have a life­line.

Re­spond­ing to a ques­tion from Guardian Me­dia on whether the re­moval of Maduro had pos­i­tive­ly al­tered the prospects for Drag­on gas, Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day stressed that the re­source be­longs to Venezuela and that any de­ci­sion on its de­vel­op­ment rests sole­ly with a le­git­i­mate­ly elect­ed Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment.

“Drag­on gas is the prop­er­ty of the Venezue­lan peo­ple. When­ev­er they choose a leader through free and fair de­mo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions, that leader will make a de­ci­sion on Drag­on gas,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

She added that Trinidad and To­ba­go had nev­er sought to ap­pro­pri­ate Venezue­lan re­sources and would in­stead fo­cus on max­imis­ing its own as­sets.

“T&T does not cov­et Venezue­lan prop­er­ty; we nev­er have and we nev­er will. We will work with what we pos­sess and en­deav­our to build on it,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Her com­ments come amid on­go­ing un­cer­tain­ty over gov­er­nance in Venezuela fol­low­ing Maduro’s ouster, con­flict­ing sig­nals re­gard­ing the au­thor­i­ty of a tran­si­tion­al ad­min­is­tra­tion, and ques­tions about the Unit­ed States’ po­si­tion on sanc­tions and en­er­gy ne­go­ti­a­tions.

Maduro is cur­rent­ly fac­ing an in­dict­ment in the US in re­la­tion to drug charges brought against him by the US, fol­low­ing his re­moval from Venezuela dur­ing a tar­get­ed US ac­tion on Sat­ur­day.

Al­so con­tact­ed for com­ment on the sit­u­a­tion yes­ter­day, for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter and en­er­gy ex­pert Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan cau­tioned against draw­ing con­clu­sions on T&T’s en­er­gy fu­ture at this stage, cit­ing un­re­solved ques­tions about who holds au­thor­i­ty in Venezuela and who would be em­pow­ered to ne­go­ti­ate any cross-bor­der gas arrange­ments.

“We don’t know who the regime is. Which regime is go­ing to be run­ning Venezuela at this point, even the tran­si­tion­al regime?” Seep­er­sad-Bachan said, not­ing that it re­mains un­clear whether elec­tions will be held and what form a new ad­min­is­tra­tion might take.

She said the un­cer­tain­ty com­pli­cates ne­go­ti­a­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly giv­en in­di­ca­tions from the Unit­ed States that sanc­tions and em­bar­goes on Venezuela re­main in place.

“So, who are you ne­go­ti­at­ing with? We don’t know. That’s my con­cern. Un­til that set­tles, then you would know what your po­si­tion would be,” she said.

Seep­er­sad-Bachan re­called that un­der the pre­vi­ous Venezue­lan ad­min­is­tra­tion, agreed terms and con­di­tions for the ex­trac­tion of Drag­on gas had been es­tab­lished, sup­port­ed by li­cences that al­lowed ne­go­ti­a­tions and prepara­to­ry work. How­ev­er, those arrange­ments were lat­er dis­rupt­ed when Venezuela in­di­cat­ed it was no longer op­er­at­ing un­der the ex­ist­ing frame­work.

“The terms and con­di­tions for the ex­trac­tion of that gas were al­ready there,” she said, adding that it re­mains un­clear whether a fu­ture ad­min­is­tra­tion would re­in­state pre­vi­ous li­cences or in­tro­duce a new le­gal and reg­u­la­to­ry regime.

She al­so point­ed to the con­tin­u­ing role of the US Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC), not­ing that any progress on Drag­on gas would still re­quire ap­pro­pri­ate li­cences if sanc­tions re­main in force.

“You still have to go back for the OFAC li­cence,” Seep­er­sad-Bachan said, de­scrib­ing the ex­ist­ing six-month li­cence as one that per­mits ne­go­ti­a­tions rather than pro­duc­tion.

She ex­plained that even if the li­cence re­mains valid, ne­go­ti­a­tions can on­ly pro­ceed mean­ing­ful­ly once there is clar­i­ty on the com­po­si­tion and au­thor­i­ty of the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment, whether tran­si­tion­al or per­ma­nent.

Seep­er­sad-Bachan added that un­cer­tain­ty ex­tends be­yond Drag­on gas to oth­er cross-bor­der fields, in­clud­ing Lo­ran-Man­a­tee and Cocuina-Man­akin, where ef­forts to re­solve uni­ti­sa­tion and li­cens­ing is­sues have al­so been con­strained by sanc­tions and diplo­mat­ic con­di­tions.

While T&T has been able to move for­ward with ex­tract­ing its own en­ti­tle­ment from Lo­ran-Man­a­tee fol­low­ing de-uni­ti­sa­tion, Seep­er­sad-Bachan said the es­ti­mat­ed 2.7 tril­lion cu­bic feet of gas was in­suf­fi­cient to sus­tain both the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate and the At­lantic LNG fa­cil­i­ty over the long term.

“That was not ad­e­quate,” she said, ex­plain­ing that Drag­on gas had been viewed as a po­ten­tial sup­ple­ment to sup­port do­mes­tic in­dus­try and LNG pro­duc­tion.

De­spite spec­u­la­tion that po­lit­i­cal change in Venezuela could un­lock stalled projects, Seep­er­sad-Bachan said the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion sug­gests oth­er­wise, with US sanc­tions still in place and no de­fin­i­tive shift in pol­i­cy.

“I thought if it is that they want­ed Maduro re­moved and they got what they want­ed, things would change, but that has not,” she said.

“The sit­u­a­tion re­mains the same.”