Lee questions Dragon field deal

Pointe a Pierre MP David Lee.
Pointe a Pierre MP David Lee.

Point-a-Pierre MP, David Lee is questioning whether or not the Government actually finalised the Dragon field natural gas deal with Venezuela or only signed a Term Sheet stating the basic terms and conditions of the agreement.

Lee queried the issue in a press release accusing the government of failing to “fully present all the relevant information on the Dragon Gas deal in a transparent manner.”

He explained his reasoning saying that pages ten and 11 of the State Enterprise Investment Programme 2019 showed that the cost of the project fell from $662 million to $236.2 million and that “the project is contingent on the execution of the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) and that the estimated expenditure for fiscal 2019 is $5.0 million.”

In addition he said the relatively low amount of $5 million compared to the $236.2 million required for the full project showed that the National Gas Company would not be doing any significant infrastructural work for the project.

“Some sources suggest that government may have only signed a Term Sheet which is a non-binding agreement setting forth the basic terms and conditions of the agreement as opposed to a Gas Supply Contract.

“Therefore the questions must be asked; were they trying to fool the population with mere public relations for the Minister of Finance’s budget presentation? Was the 2019 budget presentation one of deception especially when the major economic health and energy security of our nation has been pegged against the success of this deal?”

He recalled that at the signing of the deal on August 25 in Venezuela, local reporters were not allowed access to any aspect of the process, and accused the Government of being secretive.

He said the government needed to tell the population the real details of the deal and when first supply of gas from the Dragon field could be expected.

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