Page 13 - GLNG Week 45 2022

GLNG AMERICAS GLNG

US interested in T&T’s plan

to use Venezuelan gas for

Atlantic LNG

PROJECTS THE US government has reportedly agreed Officials in Port of Spain have indicated that
to discuss Trinidad and Tobago’s request for a they hope gas from the Dragon field could be
waiver from the sanctions laws that discourage used to restart production at Atlantic LNG’s
investment in Venezuela’s oil sector in order to Train 1. This 3mn tonne per year (tpy) facility
facilitate the search for new sources of feedstock has been idle since 2020.
for the Atlantic LNG plant. The administration of US President Joe
Port of Spain has asked Washington several Biden has expressed some interest in Trinidad
times to authorise talks with Caracas on access to and Tobago’s proposal in light of the current
natural gas fields in the southern Caribbean Sea, energy crisis in Europe, which is a major market
but its requests have generally gone unanswered. for output from Atlantic LNG, Reuters said. It
However, four sources close to the matter told also quoted one of its sources as saying, though,
Reuters last week that US officials had begun that the Biden team had voiced some reserva-
meeting with their counterparts from Trinidad tions about the Dragon plan because of the time
and Tobago to discuss the latter’s proposal for needed to bring the gas field on stream.
development of Dragon, a gas field located off- “They don’t see Trinidad’s solution as being
shore Venezuela. sufficiently immediate for Europe,” the source
As of press time, the news agency’s report explained.
could not be confirmed. Launching production at Dragon would
PdVSA, the national oil company (NOC) of take several years, even though some work has
Venezuela, has found about 4.2 trillion cubic feet already been done at the field, Reuters added.
(118.9bn cubic metres) of gas at Dragon and was PdVSA and Port of Spain would have to carry
hoping to team up with Trinidad and Tobago to out extensive subsea inspections and engineer-
develop the field about 10 years ago. Venezuela’s ing work in order to check wellhead integrity,
government shares that hope and gave Port of and they would not be able to use the 17-km line
Spain a green light to start development in 2020. built to pump gas from the field since the pipes
The project fizzled, though, due to sanctions, laid for that purpose are now being utilised by
a lack of capital and failure to secure outside Shell for production from the Colibri field.™
investors.

Week 45 10•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13