Former Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister Stuart Young this week criticized Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for what he called a complete “about-turn” on the Venezuelan Dragon gas project, noting she had declared the venture “dead” only months earlier.
Young, now an opposition MP, said Persad-Bissessar’s government had initially pledged to seek gas supplies from Grenada, Guyana and Suriname instead of Venezuela’s Dragon field. But he pointed to this week’s announcement that her administration had secured U.S. support to pursue cross-border hydrocarbons with Caracas as inconsistent with her earlier stance.
“Amazingly, one of the first announcements of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar after she was sworn in was that Dragon was dead,” Young wrote on Facebook.
The United States had revoked licenses granted to Trinidad and Tobago for the Dragon and Manakin-Cocuina cross-border gas fields, projects that were being pursued by the previous administration, of which Young was a part.
“Now, in a not surprising complete about-turn, the UNC is pursuing Venezuelan Dragon gas,” Young said.
His comments followed a statement from the Energy Ministry that Persad-Bissessar had obtained U.S. backing for Trinidad and Tobago’s cross-border hydrocarbon development during high-level talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington this week.
According to the ministry, the discussions with Rubio covered national, energy and economic security, and both sides reaffirmed strong bilateral ties. The release stated that Rubio assured that “the prosperity of Trinidad and Tobago was in the interest of the United States”. It confirmed U.S. support for the approval of Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licenses to advance talks on cross-border hydrocarbon development.
Young said that success in developing cross-border resources, such as Dragon, depended on diplomacy and mutual respect, given that the gas “is owned by another state.” He closed his remarks with a proverb: “Time is longer than twine.”
According to the U.S. State Department press statement on the visit, Rubio “outlined U.S. support for the [Trinidad and Tobago] government’s Dragon gas proposal and steps to ensure it will not provide significant benefit to the Maduro regime”.
