As this country awaits word of the renewal of the US licence as part of what the Government says is the revival of the Dragon Gas deal, the matter involves another licence that had previously been granted by Venezuela.
00:00Shell Trinidad and Tobago says on its website that the North Coast marine area includes two of its offshore facilities, one of which is the Hibiscus platform.
00:11Energy Minister Dr. Rural Munilal made reference to that platform when he spoke about what the government has declared to be the revival of the Dragon Gas deal following a bilateral meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Besessa in Washington on Tuesday.
00:27As we know, Dragon is not strictly speaking cross-border, it is within Venezuelan waters, but of course the gas would explore the reserves to have that brought to Trinidad and Tobago waters, the Hibiscus installation, and then to Trinidad.
00:45The Energy Minister also gave a reminder of the amount of natural gas in Venezuela's Dragon Field.
00:51The Dragon Field, of course, is estimated at 3.2 to 4.2 trillion cubic feet, is a significant reservoir, and it is in relation, as some of you may know, to other fields related in that area, and we will have, of course, an ongoing interest in that as well.
01:10While Trinidad and Tobago waits for the new license from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control as part of the U.S. government's stated support for the renewal of the deal for the supply of natural gas from Venezuela's Dragon Field to Trinidad and Tobago, there's also the issue of another license, the one from Venezuela.
01:28Opposition MP and former Prime Minister Stuart Young spoke about that matter during the opposition's media conference on Wednesday.
01:36The Dragon Gas Field is completely owned by the people of Venezuela, and it is the PNM government that negotiated through very difficult and trying times and managed in December 2023, after many years, to obtain a 30-year exploration, production, and export of gas license from the Dragon Field to Trinidad and Tobago waters.
02:04TV6 News posed a question to Energy Minister Munilal about that during his conference call with journalists on Wednesday.
02:11The license, as you may know, is a 30-year license. That license is in place. There's no apparent threat to that license now with the Venezuelan authorities.
02:23The license in question is the one that was revoked when the PNM was there, which is the OFAC license. It was revoked, I believe, in April this year.
02:31The Energy Minister said the main energy companies involved in the Dragon Gas Project are Shell, BP, and the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago.
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