T&T Gov’t optimistic new US sanctions against Venezuela won’t affect gas, oil deal
THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Government remained optimistic that it will not be affected by a threat by the United States (US) to reinstate sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, which is crucial to the economy of the South American country.
The threat by Washington came days after the highest court in Venezuela upheld a ban on opposition candidate María Corina Machado, who is a primary to become the opposition’s unity candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
Last Friday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court confirmed a 15-year ban on Ms Machado running for public office and Venezuela rejected the US warning as“rude and improper blackmail”.
“When the United States government issued its general licence number 44, that global licence to all and sundry that did not limit or dampen the enthusiasm of the government of Trinidad and Tobago to proceed along the path that we had started earlier,” Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley told a news conference.
Rowley, who has just returned home from the US where he held talks on energy, crime and other matters with senior officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, told reporters that Port of Spain had always adopted a policy of speaking directly to those involved in making decisions.
“From day one we did not put our argument or expectation under general licence number 44, which expires on the 18th of April. Those who rely on that general licence to do business with Venezuela that expiry is their problem. We never relied on that otherwise we would have been in that situation,” he told reporters later Friday, adding from “from day one we took a different path”.
Washington had imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector after President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a second term in 2019, following an election that the United States widely dismissed as neither free not fair.
The US loosened those sanctions in October last year after the Maduro government reached a deal with the opposition, laying some of the groundwork for free and fair presidential elections to be held in the second half of 2024.
Shortly after the deal was reached in Barbados, the US Treasury i ssued a licence temporarily allowing transactions involving Venezuela’s oil and gas sector.
However, Washington warned at the time that the licence would only be renewed if Venezuela “met its commitments under the electoral roadmap”, which included lifting the bans i mposed on Machado and a number of other opposition candidates.
Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Stuart Young, told a news conference last October that Washington had issued through the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to Port of Spain “an amendment to the licence that we had requested in the terms that we have requested.
“The licence will now run for two years until October 31, 2025, which is more than enough time for us to get done what needs to get done.
“It also allows Trinidad and Tobago, working along with NGC (National Gas Company) and Shell, to negotiate, and complete negotiations and all agreements with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA for the development, production and export of that gas from the Dragon gas field in Trinidad and Tobago for us to develop it, and for us to make payments in FIAT currency, as well as US dollars, as well as Bolivar, as well as via humanitarian measures, which is what was envisaged initially,” he added.
Rowley told reporters on Friday, “We are not and we got that confirmation during our meeting in Washington that we are not directly affected by the 18th of April activity.”