Trinidad in Talks with Venezuela on Developing Offshore Gas Field

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Trinidad and Tobago has reportedly been in talks with Venezuela on the possibilities of developing the Dragon offshore oilfield.

This is consequent to the authorization given by the U.S. authorities to commence the long-stalled project. The country’s Energy Minister Stuart Young is scheduled to make another visit to Venezuela to continue discussions with the Venezuelan government as well as PDVSA- its state-run oil company.

The U.S. nod follows lengthy appeals by Trinidad along with other Caribbean countries. President Biden gave the authorization to the offshore oilfield project, as part of its decision to ease certain sanctions on Venezuela.

Trinidad and Venezuela had made significant progress in developing the field through 2018. A commercial agreement was reached between the countries to bring gas supply to Trinidad in 2020. However, those efforts came to a halt due to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and the Maduro administration.

The success of the ongoing negotiations would commence gas supply within a couple of years. As per estimates, PDVSA-owned Dragon, which lies near to the maritime border of the two nations, holds up to 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which in turn will fuel Trinidad’s LNG and petrochemical industries. It would also bring Atlantic LNG export facility back into full action.