Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar and En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal yes­ter­day wel­comed the de­ci­sion by the US Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC) to is­sue gen­er­al li­cences 49 and 50 to BP and Shell, among oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al en­er­gy com­pa­nies, to ne­go­ti­ate and en­ter in­to con­tracts to de­vel­op gas fields in Venezuela.

The li­cences re­quires pay­ments of roy­al­ties and Venezue­lan tax­es to go through the US-con­trolled For­eign Gov­ern­ment De­posit Fund.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “Trinidad and To­ba­go views this de­vel­op­ment as an im­por­tant op­por­tu­ni­ty to deep­en hemi­spher­ic en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion, strength­en re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty and re­in­force trust­ed com­mer­cial ties.”

She con­tin­ued, “We are op­ti­mistic about the po­ten­tial to en­hance our role as a re­spon­si­ble en­er­gy hub in the Caribbean, sup­port­ing do­mes­tic in­dus­try, safe­guard­ing jobs, and con­tribut­ing to re­li­able sup­ply chains that ben­e­fit the wider re­gion.”

She stat­ed that T&T will pro­ceed in full com­pli­ance with ap­plic­a­ble le­gal and reg­u­la­to­ry re­quire­ments and in keep­ing with the coun­try’s com­mit­ment to trans­paren­cy and sound gov­er­nance.

When con­tact­ed about the de­vel­op­ment yes­ter­day, Dr Mooni­lal said it is sig­nif­i­cant in terms of T&T’s cross bor­der gas fields.

“It is a sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ment as far as it re­lates to the cross-bor­der and across-the-bor­der gas fields that Trinidad and To­ba­go has been in ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment over sev­er­al years. These fields, of course, have been sub­ject to re­stric­tions by the Unit­ed States ad­min­is­tra­tion, re­stric­tions and sanc­tions. In the com­ing hours we’ll hear much more of this, as this is a mat­ter re­al­ly of world news as well.”

Mooni­lal said the Gov­ern­ment looks for­ward to work that can be done by BP, Shell and oth­er cross-bor­der field share­hold­ers.

“In the com­ing days we will hear much more about this but, for now, we want to con­grat­u­late all par­ties for their hard work and to look for­ward to the work now by BP, Shell and oth­er stake­hold­ers to en­sure that we can mon­e­tise these re­sources to the ben­e­fit of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” said Mooni­lal.