Caption: Stuart Young
By Alicia Chamely
FORMER minister of energy Stuart Young is calling on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to inform the population on the terms and conditions for the newly granted Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) license.
Young’s call came on Thursday, shortly after Attorney General John Jeremie announced the United States Treasury Department had granted Trinidad and Tobago an OFAC license to begin negotiations with Venezuela for the exploration and exploitation of the Dragon Gas field.
Jeremie made the announcement at a press conference held at the Office of the Attorney General, Richmond Street, Port of Spain.
Taking to his Facebook page, Young wrote, “I have noted the government has announced what sounds like some sort of six-month provisional type OFAC license.”
“I urge the government to inform the population what are the terms and conditions of this six-month licence, for example, can Shell and NGC pay the Venezuelan government for the gas?” he continued.
Questioned by the media as to the details of the OFAC license, Jeremie said for confidentiality reasons he could not go to far into the details but confirmed the agreement between the US and T&T was a tiered one, with T&T having to meet certain benchmarks. Jeremie said, however, he was “confident” that T&T could meet these commercial benchmarks.
Commenting on this, Young said, “The PNM government consistently kept the population apprised of what was going on unlike the current government whose new posturing is both ironic and hypocritical, as they now claim “confidentiality” as a reason to not inform the population.”
He said, “The UNC sold the country the term “Secret Deal” when referring to the previous work that was done to secure the licence for Dragon even though the licence was published in the Venezuelan Gazette and public.”
Young again called for the terms and conditions of the OFAC license to be revealed and for there to be transparency in the dealings between the US and T&T.
“Again, I urge the Government to be transparent on the terms of this provisional six-month OFAC licence.
“And more importantly, please tell us what did you, the UNC, promise in order to get it.”
