Caption: Stuart Young. T&T Parlieament

By Alicia Chamely

FORMER Minister of Energy Stuart Young is not surprised by the government’s negotiations to resurrect the Dragon Gas deal.

Responding to news on Tuesday that the government had decided to pursue the cross-border gas deal, which they heavily criticised while in Opposition and declared “dead” days after the elections, Young put out a statement on his Facebook page.

Young stated the announcement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, confirming his support for the government’s Dragon gas proposal, was consistent with what Rubio told him when he served as prime minister.

Mentioning the government’s backtracking on their insistence that they would not continue with the Dragon gas deal, Young stated, “Amazingly, one of the first announcements of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar after she was sworn in was that Dragon was dead and that her government would be pursuing gas in Grenada, Guyana, and Suriname.”

“Now, in a not surprising complete about turn, the UNC is pursuing Venezuelan Dragon gas,” he said.

Taking a subtle jab at the recent tension between the government and the government of Venezuela, Young stated, “The success of cross border gas depends on many factors including, very critically, multilateral respect and diplomacy as the gas is owned by another state.”