Ramnarine: Venezuelan President needs money to run country

After the Prime Minister said work continues on the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela, former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine blamed it on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licence – granted by the US government. He said this during a television interview on Thursday.

This US$1 billion licence stipulates that Venezuela would receive non-cash payment and was signed in August 2018.

But Rowley said this was not a major problem in January – when the ten-year-license was granted.

During the interview, Rowley said, "We are talking on both sides. We are still negotiating."

And while it is disappointing, he maintained that the government "will stay the course."

In a WhatsApp exchange with Newsday on Friday, Ramnarine said, "This has not gone down well with President Maduro who needs cash to run Venezuela."

He added that TT should not plan its business on the hope of natural gas arriving from Venezuela, especially after the OFAC licence has "fizzled out" since its announcement.

"We would obviously continue to pursue that objective, but no one can say with any certainty when or if Dragon gas will ever reach TT. In the wake of this realisation, we need to make the best with what is inside of our borders. Someone has dropped the ball on the deepwater exploration – with deepwater block being awarded in 2012, 2013 and 2014 – and development thrust," he said.

Ramnarine said it seems unlikely that TT will have a deepwater natural production by 2026.

"At present, the situation with natural gas production is dire and we will struggle with that until Manatee comes into production in 2028. The question is, what happens between now and 2028?"

On January 24, the US OFAC granted TT a two-year waiver to explore the Dragon natural gas field in Venezuela.

Those involved included energy giant Shell, Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, and TT’s National Gas Company (NGC).

The Dragon deal would have seen TT developing the field which is estimated to produce approximately 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day. The gas was supposed to be imported through a billion-dollar pipeline to the Hibiscus platform off the northwest coast of TT. The platform is jointly owned by the TT government, NGC and Shell.

The deal was left in limbo after the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela in 2019.