00:00Former Energy Minister and Attorney at Law Kevin Ramnarein says reports of Shell expanding its gas interests in Venezuela could
00:08be a game changer for Trinidad and Tobago's struggling energy sector.
00:13It's a very important development as far as our energy sector goes.
00:18Ramnarein says the move is part of a long-term strategy by Shell to secure gas supplies for Trinidad's LNG
00:25industry.
00:25Shell has been playing a long-game strategy with Trinidad and Venezuela as it relates to natural gas and LNG.
00:37He notes that Shell's dominance in the local LNG sector dates back more than a decade following major acquisitions.
00:44The 2013 acquisition of Repsol shares in Atlantic LNG and the 2015 acquisition of British gas shares through their global
00:54acquisition of BG Group.
00:56So those two acquisitions between 2013 and 2015 gave Shell the largest shareholder footprint in Atlantic LNG and it said
01:10to me and I think it said to the industry that they saw our LNG industry as strategic to their
01:17global LNG portfolio.
01:19But since then declining domestic gas production has placed pressure on the sector and that's the reality he said which
01:27drove the push towards Venezuelan gas.
01:30Dragon is central to that and now we are hearing from international reports that Shell might be in conversation because
01:40we are just going on the reports that are coming from the international news houses.
01:47Shell may be in conversation with Venezuela for natural gas reserves beyond Dragon in the Mariscal Sucre area.
01:56While he describes the development as positive, Ram Narayan cautions that it effectively means Trinidad will be importing gas.
02:04Ultimately what it means that Trinidad and Tobago has become an importer of natural gas to supplement our declining domestic
02:15production and that taxes and royalties associated with the production of natural gas in Venezuela would be taxes and royalties
02:25to be paid to the Venezuelan government.
02:29Despite that, he says, the country urgently needs a new supply.
02:34We have a need for natural gas in Trinidad because as you would of course note a lot of plants
02:41in Point Lises are down.
02:43As I mentioned one LNG train went down in 2020 I believe it was.
02:49And he says if the deal materializes the benefits could be long too.
02:54Arvashita Wari Rupnarei, TV6 News.
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