Dragon on hold, Rowley blames US sanctions

The Dragon deal, considered a landmark cross-border agreement between TT and Venezuela, is currently on hold. The Prime Minister, speaking at the 2020 Energy Conference, said because of US economic sanctions against Venezuela, “it is regrettable that we cannot move ahead with the Dragon Project which is on hold, at this time.” He added, though, that “at a moment’s notice, we are ready to move ahead with the project on the lifting of such restrictions since virtually all the preparatory work has been done.”

The government will, however, move forward with Manatee, part of the Loran-Manatee across-border (shared field) with Venezuela. The field has just over 10 trillion cubic feet of gas estimated, with 75 per cent in Venezuela and 25 in TT borders. Rowley said Manatee was “the single most significant development in the energy sector in recent times.”

He also boasted of close to a billion dollars in profits from subsidiary companies of Petrotrin, Heritage Petroleum and Paria Fuel Trading Company on Monday at the opening of the TT Energy Conference 2020. He said for its first year Heritage made $884 million in profits after tax (unaudited statements) and Paria garnered $172 million for the same period.