Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 05 2023

LatAmOil TRINIDAD & TOBAGO LatAmOil

Dragon is adjacent to Trinidad and Tobago’s Hibiscus gas field (Image: Mitsubishi)

Rowley says T&T may pay Caracas for gas

with humanitarian supplies instead of cash

KEITH Rowley, the prime minister of Trinidad we pay for it in a variety of ways.”
and Tobago, reported last week that his govern- The prime minister did not say whether his
ment was considering non-cash methods of government was considering any specific pro-
compensating Venezuela for natural gas from posals or whether it had discussed the matter
the offshore Dragon field in order to comply with Venezuelan or US officials. He did indicate,
with the terms of a US sanctions waiver. though, that he hoped Shell (UK) would become
Rowley revealed on January 24 that Wash- the operator of the Dragon project.
ington agreed to grant Port of Spain a two-year The multi-national had struck a deal with
exemption from restrictions on investment in Venezuela’s national oil company (NOC)
the Venezuelan oil and gas sector for the pur- PdVSA and National Gas Co. of Trinidad and
pose of moving forward with the Dragon pro- Tobago Ltd (NGC) on the field and several
ject. Two days later, he told reporters that since nearby sites in 2018, prior to the imposition of
this waiver hinged on a pledge not to make any the US sanctions. That agreement called for gas
cash payments to the government of Venezuelan from the Dragon field to be piped from Vene-
President Nicolas Maduro, Trinidad and Tobago zuelan waters to the nearby Hibiscus field, a
might instead seek to pay in kind, with humani- Shell-operated site located just across the mar-
tarian supplies such as medicine and food rather itime border with Trinidad and Tobago; from
than cash. Hibiscus, Shell could then transport gas to shore
“We have done that before,” he said, refer- for processing, liquefaction and eventual export
ring to previous agreements under which Port at the Atlantic LNG plant.
of Spain sent around $50mn worth of humani- The Dragon field holds around 4.2bn cubic
tarian goods to Caracas. “So we buy the gas, and feet (118.9mn cubic metres) of gas. ™

COLOMBIA
Ecopetrol CEO to step down on March 31

COLOMBIA’S national oil company (NOC) departure in a statement dated January 26. It
Ecopetrol is heading for a personnel change, as did not name his successor, but it noted that
its CEO Felipe Bayón Pardo is set to step down the NOC’s board of directors would under-
from his post on March 31. take a “rigorous selection process” to find his
Ecopetrol announced Bayon’s upcoming replacement.

Week 05 01•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P7