00:00 I must say it's a little depressing when I see citizens of Trinidad and Tobago
00:07 jumping up and down and cheering every time they think that we have lost what
00:13 they call the "Dragon Deal".
00:15 Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley during his media conference at Whitehall on Friday
00:19 making his first public comments about the statement issued by the US State
00:22 Department spokesperson who said that in support of the Barbados agreement the
00:28 United States issued a general license 44 which provides relief to Venezuela's
00:32 oil and gas sector before the State Department threatened that absent
00:37 progress between Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his representatives
00:41 and the opposition unitary platform particularly on allowing all
00:45 presidential candidates to compete in this year's election in Venezuela the
00:49 United States will not renew the license when it expires on April 18th 2024.
00:55 We were not prepared to talk to go-betweens and juniors from day one we did not put
01:05 our argument or our expectation on the general license number 44 which
01:11 expires on the 1st of April on the 18th of April actually it's a few weeks from
01:17 now those who rely on that general license to do business with Venezuela
01:23 that expiry is their problem we never relied on that otherwise we would have
01:30 been in that situation. The Prime Minister spoke about the license from
01:33 the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control that allowed for
01:38 the Dragon Deal the supply of natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago from
01:41 Venezuela's Dragon Field. A subsequent amendment the license was issued by the
01:46 US in October of last year and expires on October 21st 2025 that allows
01:52 Trinidad and Tobago to pay Venezuela in cash. The Prime Minister also made
01:56 reference to the 30-year expiration license the government received from
02:00 Venezuela for the operation of the Dragon Field. TV6 News has sought some
02:04 clarification from the Prime Minister. If the US does not renew that license, the
02:09 wider license, does that affect the ability of Trinidad and Tobago and GC to sell or get
02:16 persons interested in buying the gas whenever that gas is brought to market?
02:21 You would have seen the enthusiasm expressed by persons interested in us
02:27 having access to that gas. That should tell you that this is a very valuable
02:33 development. Dr. Rowley said his administration has been and is doing
02:36 everything reasonable and possible to ensure progress is made towards
02:40 production of the gas from the Dragon Field which would occur following a
02:44 process that includes a survey of the field by Shell. You see what's happening
02:48 in Ukraine. You see what's happening in the United States. What's happening in Europe.
02:52 Right? So we can't give you any guarantee that nothing will hurt us. Of course we
02:57 can be hurt by the same token. Where did Covid come from? We didn't know that we were
03:04 going to be hurt by a pandemic. Why we say we can stop living because you can't
03:08 get infected? No. We just have to buckle down. We have been doing the work and at
03:14 this point in time we believe that the work that we have been doing and the way
03:19 we have approached it and the results that we have had and the commitments
03:22 that we have will see us progressing along the lines that we have been
03:25 progressing on with these matters. The Prime Minister said the Dragon Gas deal
03:30 is not about his legacy but about future generations. And I'm sorry to announce to
03:35 those who would love to see the Dragon dead, Trinidad and Tobago is alive and
03:41 well and has a government that looks out for the interests of all the people of
03:46 Trinidad and Tobago, especially our children.
03:49 Jules Brown, TV6 News.
03:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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