Lee: What did Dragon deal cost Trinidad and Tobago?

DAVID LEE, shadow spokesman on energy and former Pointe-a-Pierre MP, wants to know how much the government has already spent on the Dragon deal and whether it now owes any penalties to the Venezuelan government after the US government put brakes on the deal.

Lee held a briefing with shadow spokesman on finance and former Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo at the UNC headquarters in Chaguanas on April 9.

This came the day after Prime Minister Stuart Young held a briefing to announce that the US Government had withdrawn special licences issued by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) that would have allowed Trinidad and Tobago to monetise gas from the Dragon field and the Cocuina part of the Manakin-Cocuina cross-border field which both lie in Venezuelan waters.

The US government has sought to sanction aspects of the Venezuelan economy due to allegations the Nicholas Maduro administration had not respected the results of last year's Venezuelan presidential election.

Lee said, "It is a sad day. It is really a sad day.

"We are literally saddened. This is nothing to gloat over, because this impacts every citizen of TT."

Saying the news from the US government did not come as a surprise to the opposition, he said, "We are not happy this is happening."

However he said the opposition had warned the government time and again about the Dragon deal.

"That was always considered a bad risk considering the volatility of the Maduro administration."

Lee said at present the gas projects in TT waters now acting as a lifeline for the TT economy were the result of initiatives of the former Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration.

He said amid the freezing of the Dragon deal, the government has argued it had carried out bid rounds for acreage in both shallow and deep waters, but he said these had largely failed to attract bids due to to what Lee termed insufficient incentivisation of energy companies.

Lee asked how much money had the government paid to Venezuela for the Dragon deal, who had made the payments and for what benefit exactly?

"What was the amount of the confidential signing bonus?"

He asked if there were now other costs that TT must pay Venezuela after the pull-back of the OFAC licences.

"How much money was spent already and what are the implications for the citizens of TT today?" Lee asked.

Recalling the opposition's past warnings about the Dragon deal, he said the government had kept saying it needed no help from anyone, and the citizenry had no choice but to follow them.

Lee said the UNC's plans for the energy sector included re-opening the refinery, finding in-border (local) sources of oil and gas, supplying gas to TT's gas-based industrial sector such as by deep water bid rounds, and developing an energy port at Point Galeota.

Tancoo said Young had announced the Dragon deal was dead and then put himself forward as the person to negotiate with the US.

"This Stuart Young is a failed negotiator and is threatening to go back and negotiate again."

He said Young had recently met Rubio, only for TT to then face a worsening US travel advisory, a ten per cent tariff on TT exports to the US and now the death of the Dragon deal.

"There is only one way to revitalise the energy sector – remove every one of those members of government."

Tancoo denied Young's claims that in order to afford its plans including payments to unionised workers, a UNC government would have to devalue the TT dollar from roughly seven to one now down to 15 to one.

"I don't know where he picks up that information from."