US grants Trinidad license to pursue Dragon gas project in Venezuela

Trinidad and Tobago has received authorization from the United States Department of the Treasury to move forward with the development of the Dragon gas field in Venezuela, Attorney General John Jeremie announced.

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The approval, issued through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), grants the Caribbean nation and its partners a six-month license to engage in negotiations with the Venezuelan government. The project, which aims to supply Trinidad with Venezuelan gas, has experienced years of delay due to shifting U.S. sanctions and policy changes toward Caracas, which has remained under U.S. energy sanctions since 2019.

According to Jeremie, the license was awarded following an application made in May by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the National Gas Company (NGC).

The OFAC license authorizes U.S. persons — including employees, affiliates, contractors, and service providers — working for or on behalf of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the NGC, Shell PLC, Futura Clara Limited, and their subsidiaries and affiliates to engage in transactions “ordinarily incident and necessary to negotiations with the Government of Venezuela” for an initial six-month period.

“The Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Energy, together with the National Gas Company, are now tasked with the responsibility to take the necessary steps to advance this project, which is important to the future development of our energy sector,” Jeremie said.

The U.S. State Department said in late September that Washington supported Trinidad’s Dragon gas proposal but would ensure that the arrangement “would not provide significant benefit to Maduro’s administration.”

The Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago has since congratulated the government on securing the license. The organization said the authorization allows the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, along with state entities and private companies, to engage with Venezuela “without being affected by sanctions.”

The OFAC approval effectively enables the involved entities to resume work on commercial and technical terms over the next six months.