Page 5 - LatAmOil Week 04 2023

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

In any event, Rowley reported that Washington Gas for Jamaica, DR
had granted Port of Spain’s request for permis- The prime minister did not divulge full details
sion to work with PdVSA. Trinidad and Tobago of Harris’ participation in the process, but the
applied for the waiver in mid-2022 and has been US vice president’s office issued a statement
discussing the project with US officials, includ- indicating that Trinidad and Tobago’s deal with
ing President Joe Biden, ever since then, while PdVSA was designed to boost gas supplies in the
also keeping channels of communication open Caribbean region.
with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he “The vice president conveyed to the prime
said. minister that the Treasury Department would
Washington gave the deal the green light on take action to help meet the region’s long-term
the understanding that certain provisions of the energy needs,” the statement said. In practical
sanctions regime would remain in force, Rowley terms, this will take the form of including pro-
noted. Trinidad and Tobago will only be able to visions in the waiver that require Trinidad and
proceed on the condition that no cash payments Tobago to direct a portion of future gas produc-
are made to Maduro’s regime during the two- tion from the Dragon field to Jamaica and the
year term of the waiver, he explained. Dominican Republic, it noted. Dragon is
Port of Spain had asked for a 10-year exemp- It was not immediately clear how much of expected
tion from sanctions but won a two-year licence this production stream might be reserved for
from OFAC, he added. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Drag- to serve as
on’s output may eventually peak at 3.5bn cubic
Regional involvement feet (99.11mn cubic metres) per day. The field an extra
The prime minister made clear that his gov- is expected to help serve as a supplementary
ernment had not been discussing the deal in source of feedstock for Atlantic LNG, a gas liq- source of
isolation. uefaction plant in Trinidad and Tobago that is feedstock for
Other countries in the region have thrown currently processing 3 bcf (84.96 mcm) per day,
their support behind the Dragon project, he equivalent to about 71.43% of its design capacity the Atlantic
noted. These include Jamaica and the Domin- of 4.2 bcf (118.9 mcm) per day.
ican Republic, which will benefit directly from Rowley indicated that Port of Spain and LNG plant on
the agreement, he said, noting particularly Caracas had already drawn up some operational
that the Dominican Republic’s President Luis plans for work at the gas field. The two sides have Trinidad and
Rodolfo Abinader had helped promote discus- agreed to “take reasonable steps to facilitate the Tobago
sions on regional energy security. development of construction, operation and
He also expressed gratitude to Antigua and maintenance of one or more pipelines from the
Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, The Mariscal Sucre area ... including a pipeline from
Bahamas’ Prime Minister Phillip Davis, Bar- the Dragon field to Trinidad’s Hibiscus plat-
bados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Guyana’s form,” he stated.
President Irfaan Ali and Suriname’s President Hibiscus is an offshore gas field being devel-
Chan Santokhi. oped by Shell (UK), which will also be a partner
All of these leaders “have been in Trinidad in the Dragon project. Shell had expected to lead
and Tobago’s corner, pushing us to this point the development of Dragon in 2018, and Rowley
of encouraging the United States to do this,” he indicated that the multinational was still slated
remarked. to serve as operator. Even though OFAC has
Additionally, Rowley thanked US Vice Pres- granted the waiver to NGC and PdVSA is tech-
ident Kamala Harris for her role in the negoti- nically the owner of the Dragon field, Shell will
ations on the waiver, saying that she had been operate the project, he said.
a “careful and committed listener” during an It is not immediately clear how the US
extensive series of talks between representatives expects to benefit from this new development.
of the US government and various Caribbean US companies are already involved in LNG
countries. These discussions will help bolster deliveries to both Jamaica and the Dominican
energy security in the region and reduce reliance Republic, as New Fortress Energy (NFE) is
on fuel imported from Russia and other outside active in the former country and AES is active
suppliers, he said. in the latter. ™

Rowley, shown speaking on January 24 (Photo: Facebook/@Office of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago)

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