LatAmOil: T&T asks US to revise terms of waiver for Dragon gas project

Trinidad and Tobago has requested that the US make changes to a waiver that permits joint development of Dragon, a promising natural gas field offshore Venezuela, without penalties under the US sanctions regime.

According to Stuart Young, Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy and Energy Industries Minister, the sticking point is that the waiver hinges on the condition that no cash payments be made to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro or to state-owned Venezuelan companies. Reuters reported last week that Young and Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley had recently sought to clarify the matter with US Presidential Co-ordinator for International Energy Security Amos Hochstein and the staff of US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Young said the proposed changes to the waiver from sanctions were partly related to the financial terms. “There are still some changes that need to be made that we’re pursuing,” he told Reuters. “But that is always part of very complicated and sophisticated energy negotiations.”