00:00Ladies and gentlemen, I have come here tonight to join the election campaign of 2025.
00:14PNM political leader Dr. Keith Rowley in his first campaign speech since Energy Minister Stuart Young was appointed as Prime Minister last month,
00:23after Dr. Rowley retired as the head of the government.
00:26And Dr. Rowley did not mince his words about some of the UNC's campaign promises.
00:32And let me tell you what my source of information tells me when I try to understand what the UNC is about.
00:38You know what the UNC is saying quietly and secretly?
00:41If they ever get to that situation where they come into office and they can't pay the bills that they're committed to
00:48and they cut the public service, it's mainly PNM supporters that can be affected
00:53because the bulk of the public service is East-West Corridor people supporting the PNM.
00:58And he gave his first public comments about the Donald Trump-led U.S. government
01:02having revoked its waivers of certain sanctions against Venezuela
01:07granted by the previous Joe Biden administration that advanced the deals for the supply of natural gas
01:14from Venezuela's jargon and mannequin coquina fields to Trinidad and Tobago.
01:18Dr. Rowley spoke about the efforts by the government he once led to secure those deals
01:24as well as the separation of a field that allows Venezuela to extract gas from its larger side
01:30and Trinidad and Tobago to extract gas from its side.
01:34Jargon is a three and a half trillion cubic feet field.
01:40Loran manatee is a ten trillion cubic feet field.
01:46So all this thing about jargon, jargon, jargon, the bigger fish that is being fried now is manatee.
01:55Earlier this week, the political leader of the UNC, opposition leader Kamala Passat-Besessa,
02:01also commented on the matter.
02:02I don't gloat about that failure of the drug and gas
02:06because anything that could help us, to help our revenue streams, is important and we support.
02:12But the UNC government will renegotiate with all our trading partners
02:17in the best interest of Trinidad and Tobago.
02:20Dr. Rowley told his party's line that the government did not put all of its eggs in one basket.
02:36If the UNC is the government that keeps insulting the Venezuelan government,
02:42the Venezuelan people, and turn their back on trade with Venezuela,
02:48can't you see how that also threatens the Loran manatee project?
02:54In July of last year, Global Energy Jan Shell announced
02:58its Trinidad and Tobago subsidiary had taken a final investment decision on the manatee project.
03:05Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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