Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 04 2023

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

NGC, PdVSA and Shell struck the initial deal in 2018 (Image: PdVSA)
US waives sanctions

for Dragon gas project

OFAC gives T&T permission to work with PdVSA, Shell at offshore gas field

VENEZUELAN government officials have that OFAC had agreed to let his country move
had many opportunities to familiarise them- forward with plans to develop Dragon, an off-
WHAT: selves with the Office of Foreign Assets Control shore natural gas field, jointly with Venezuela’s
Venezuela will be able to (OFAC), the division of the US Treasury Depart- national oil company (NOC) PdVSA.
move some of its offshore ment that oversees sanctions implementation, “The United States government has today
gas to market via Trinidad since Washington began restricting investment approved Trinidad and Tobago’s development
and Tobago. in the oil industry in early 2019. of the Dragon field via an OFAC waiver from
Within the last year, though, OFAC has sanctions, with specific terms to be finalised,” he
WHY: lifted some of the pressure. It gave a few Euro- declared. “What this means is that the restric-
Other countries in the re- pean firms permission to resume exports of tions on the Dragon gas field development are
gion support the project.
Venezuelan crude oil in the second quarter of now relieved, and all relevant parties can pro-
WHAT NEXT: 2022, for instance, and also authorised the US gress the plans to result in natural gas from
Venezuela.”
major Chevron to restart some of its upstream
The deal is contingent on
fuel supplies to Jamaica operations in the South American country last
and the Dominican November. Details emerging
Republic, where US And this week, Washington has taken yet Some sources have reported that state-owned
companies already have another step to lessen the weight of the sanctions PdVSA will serve as operator of the project,
a presence in the gas imposed on Caracas. On January 24, Keith Row- which targets a section of the maritime bound-
market. ley, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, ary line between Trinidad and Tobago and
said at an industry conference in Port of Spain Venezuela.

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