LatAmOil: T&T wins two-year waiver for joint gas project with Venezuela

Keith Rowley, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, revealed that US authorities have agreed to let his country proceed with the development of Dragon, a natural gas field offshore Venezuela.

Some sources have reported that Venezuela’s national oil company (NOC) PdVSA will serve as operator of the project, which targets a section of the maritime boundary line between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. Other observers say Shell (UK), which signed an agreement with PdVSA and National Gas Co. of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd (NGC) on Dragon and several other nearby fields in 2018, will take that role.

Washington green-lighted the agreement on the condition that no cash payments be made to Caracas during the two-year term of the waiver, Rowley explained. Meanwhile, the office of US Vice President Vice President Kamala Harris, who helped broker the deal, said the waiver included provisions requiring Trinidad and Tobago to direct a portion of future gas production from Dragon to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.