Page 4 - GLNG Week 11 2023

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

T&T preparing for more talks

on Dragon

Young waxes optimistic about the prospects for a quick deal that might

see gas flowing in two years, but other observers believe more time will be

VENEZUELA EARLIER this year, the US government took enthusiastically to Reuters at CERAWeek about
WHAT: another small step towards loosening sanc- the prospect of reaching an agreement soon
Port of Spain is gearing tions on Venezuela’s petroleum industry by with PdVSA. He indicated that he believed the
up for a third round of granting Trinidad and Tobago a two-year two countries had established a good founda-
talks with Caracas on the waiver for the purpose of facilitating negotia- tion for joint development of Dragon, a gas field
Dragon gas project. tions on a natural gas project that has remained located offshore Venezuela near the maritime
stalled for years. border with Trinidad and Tobago, noting that
WHY: Port of Spain held its first round of talks with Port of Spain had “a relationship of respect” with
The US has green-lighted Caracas on the scheme last month, and Stuart Caracas.
Shell’s participation in Young, the head of Trinidad and Tobago’s Min- Additionally, he drew attention to other sup-
the Venezuelan scheme. istry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI), ports that were being put in place for the Dragon
said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek confer- initiative. Specifically, he noted that officials in
WHAT NEXT: ence in Houston on March 9 that the parties Washington had given Shell (UK) a green light
Venezuela is likely were holding substantive discussions. He told to join the project as a partner to PdVSA and the
to push for more Reuters in an interview that he was preparing to state-owned National Gas Co. of Trinidad and
concessions from the US. make a third visit to Caracas before the end of Tobago Ltd (NGC). (The waiver was previously
March and would be meeting there with Tareck reported to cover only Trinidadian companies.)
El Aissami, the head of Venezuela’s Petroleum
Ministry, as well as Pedro Rafael Tellechea, the Young’s optimism
head of the national oil company (NOC) PdVSA. Under these circumstances, Port of Spain has
Since then, Young has confirmed that the reason to be optimistic about its chances of
visit began as scheduled on March 14. Very few striking a deal with Venezuela in the near term,
details of the discussions have been made pub- Young told Reuters.
lic – probably because the parties have signed a If it does that, he noted, it will gain access to
non-disclosure agreement. that field’s reserves, which amount to around
It is worth noting, though, that Young spoke 4.2 trillion feet (118.9bn cubic metres). These

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