The Energy Ministry has confirmed that talks between the Governments of T&T and Venezuela about development of the cross-border Loran/Manatee field are "ongoing and at an advanced stage."This follows a statement by Venezuela's Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez who said the neighbouring nations had reached a deal to jointly produce gas from fields located between the two countries.The Energy Minister said in a press release: "An agreement concerning the functional structure and governance of the Unit Operator for the Loran/Manatee field has been finalised at the level of the Joint Steering Committee and is expected to be executed by the respective ministers of both countries shortly."
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said both governments had made significant progress in recent months on development of all cross-border hydrocarbon reservoirs that extend across the delimitation line.His Venezuelan counterpart said last week that Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Chevron Corp will produce the gas from unified offshore fields that contain nearly 12 trillian cubic feet of natural gas.Ramirez said the deal was sealed last Tuesday night with Ramnarine, who travelled to Caracas to wrap up the gas production agreement which is scheduled to be signed in Caracas this week.
"We are going to sign the document approving the functional structure and governability of the operations of the unified fields... with the presence of Minister Ramnarine," he is quoted as saying in media reports in VenezuelaRamirez said the biggest of the fields covered in the agreement contains 10.25 trillion cubic feet of gas, of which "73.75 per cent is Venezuela's and 26.25 per cent is Trinidad and Tobago's." Production from this field will be undertaken from the Venezuelan side."We have reached an agreement. We are going to exploit it from the Venezuelan side, where 73.75 per cent of the gas is...and we are going to do it between PDVSA Gas and Chevron," he said.T&T has a bigger ownership stake in the other two shared fields, which hold more than 1 trillion cubic feet of gas.