Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
13 February 2023 ( Page 9 )
Govt silent on reports of V’zuela complaints about Dragon deal
GAIL ALEXANDER
Government has so far not commented on reports that Venezuela
complained to St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves about the
Dragon gas field deal. The complaint might be raised at this week’s Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of Caricom in
the Bahamas.
Neither Energy Minister Stuart Young or Foreign Affairs Minister Amery
Browne responded to calls for comment on the matter yesterday after T&T
born UK-based consultant Pearce Robinson reported the possibility on his
website.
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela’s Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, greets Minister of
Energy Stuart Young before their meeting last Monday.
PICTURE DELCY RODRIGUEZ/TWITTER
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Browne will attend the Caricom meeting
which takes place from Wednesday to Friday.
Young is yet to report on his trip to Caracas, Venezuela, last Monday for
negotiations on the Dragon gas field project. Last month the United States
granted a two-year licence to T&T to develop the field which is in Venezuela’s
maritime jurisdiction. T&T cannot pay Venezuela in cash for the
arrangement.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro subsequently lashed out at US licenses
barring companies from doing cash business with the country’s state firms.
Rowley said Venezuela’s Government had made no public statements
specific to T&T’s use of the licence.
During Young’s Caracas visit, he met with Venezuela Vice President Delcy
Rodriguez and Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami.
On Twitter last Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gi posted: “We
welcome the Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago
Stuart R Young with whom we exchanged views on joint development in
energy matters to promote the use of these resources for mutual benefit.”
However, on Saturday Robinson’s website reported that Gonsalves met last
Wednesday with Maduro on matters concerning the ALBA and the
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Gonsalves
heads CELAC.
Robinson claimed that the Dragon deal was viewed as “disrespectful to the
sovereignty of Venezuela and Caricom countries” and that Gonzales
“undertook to raise Venezuela’s protestations” at the upcoming Caricom
meeting since Young’s Caracas meeting “didn’t go as planned.” Reports are
that Venezuela, via St Vincent, “will raise a complaint” at the meeting.
In a video on St Vincent’s Agency for Public Information (API), Gonsalves had
said he and Maduro had “very wide ranging and deep discussions on matters
concerning ALBA and CELAC and...Caricom, and the issues touching and
concerning all those integration movements.”
He added, “Of course, Venezuela is not in Caricom but he (Maduro) wanted to
find out what were the issues which were coming up at the Summit in
another week’s time in the Bahamas.”
Citing the strong relationship between St Vincent and Venezuela, Gonsalves
said the discussions were really between “friends, brothers, persons who are
in solidarity.”
“But it is important for me to say to everybody and hope the United State
leaders are hearing this: the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is very much
interested in having good relations with the United States of America, those
relations to be in dignity, self-respect for them to have dialogue without
pre-condition; conversations which will strengthen rather than weaken the
hemisphere and for us to have global peace, prosperity and security for all.”
The Dragon field project is likely to be raised at the Caricom meeting since Dr
Rowley had said the two-year licence will allow PDVSA, Shell and T&T to
jointly plan and develop a gas-exporting project and it also allows for a
portion of the resulting gas to be exported to Jamaica and the Dominican
Republic.
On January 27 the Jamaica Observer reported that country’s Energy Minister
Daryl Vaz was in a “frantic scramble to get information” since he wasn’t
aware of an energy deal involving gas from T&T.
Vaz said Jamaica was following to see what could be learned on the matter
and it was “kind of difficult to see Jamaica mentioned in something like this
and the Government is totally unaware.”
Photo: Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley
PICTURE RISHI RAGOONATH
Photo: Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro
Photo: Venezuela’s Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, greets Minister of Energy Stuart Young before their meeting last Monday.
PICTURE DELCY RODRIGUEZ/TWITTER