Caption: Attorney General John Jeremine holds the OFAC license issued by the US Treasury Department. He is joined by Minister of Justice and Minister in the Office of the Attorney General Devesh Maharaj. AZP News/Alicia Chamely

 

By Alicia Chamely

THE Dragon Gas Deal has come alive, as the United States of America Treasury Department issues Trinidad and Tobago an Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) license to begin negotiations with Venezuela.

Attorney General John Jeremie announced the issuance of the OFAC license at a press conference on Thursday at the Office of the Attorney General, Richmond Street, Port of Spain.

Jeremie said, “I am pleased to announce that the Treasury Department of the United States has granted the OFAC license that was applied for by this government and the National Gas Company to pursue the exploration of the Dragon Gas field.”

He said, “The effect of the grant of this license is to permit the government and the NGC to engage in negotiations with the government of Venezuela and other stakeholders, to advance the Dragon Gas project, without breaching sanctions imposed by the United States government and US law,” the AG said.

Jeremie said, “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.”

He said the license was granted on Wednesday and was delivered to him on Thursday.

“It cannot be disputed,” he said, “Three days ago there was no licence, today there is a licence. And the Dragon Deal project has come alive.”

Jeremie noted the request for the OFAC license was submitted on May 19, with further supplemental information being delivered to the Treasury Department in June and July.

Discussing the last People’s National Movement administration’s efforts to secure the deal, he said, “It bears noting that the last administration spent an excess of $120 million pursuing this project, with nothing to show for it after two years.”

He added, “This administration has spent less than half of a million dollars in securing this license.”

Jeremie said, “This fact alone speaks volumes with respect to the manner in which the government and the Prime Minister have undertaken the business of the people of this country.”

While Jeremie could not give specific details into the license agreement, when asked as to the duration of the license, Jeremie explained it was based on a tiered system.

He said the first tier goes to April 2026, where certain commercial benchmarks must be met.

Jeremie said these tiers worked as steps towards the exploitation of the Dragon Gas Field, noting the first step would be to begin negotiations with Venezuela, which he assured would take place soon.

Questioned as to how confident the government was that they would meet all the contractual benchmarks and not have the license revoked, he said, “We are very confident that our relationship with the United States, that the pivot we have made in our foreign policies. Our relationship with the United States permits us to say that we are confident that we are dealing with good faith partners and the commercial targets are reasonable and not unknown to us. We are confident that those targets will be met.”

Addressing the issue of the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statements that all dealings must not financially benefit the Venezuelan government under Nicolas Maduro, and how the government plans to negotiate the deal with these limitations in place, Jeremie said, “There are ways to work around that. It is a commercial win-win for all parties.”

“The United States benefits from this arrangement; there are terms and conditions in the license, which ensure that US companies benefit and there are tiers as to how they should benefit. Trinidad and Tobago obviously stands to benefit and to a certain extent, of course, the people of Venezuela will benefit too,” the AG stated.

The Dragon gas field holds up to 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and is located in Venezuelan waters.