In the wake of news that the US De­part­ment of Trea­sury is­sued OFAC gen­er­al li­cences to BP and Shell, for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young has raised ques­tions con­cern­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s ne­go­ti­a­tions with Venezuela.

Young not­ed that the OFAC Gen­er­al Li­cense No 50 “specif­i­cal­ly iden­ti­fies BP PLC and Shell PLC as now hav­ing some abil­i­ty to en­ter in­to arrange­ments with Venezuela re­lat­ed to oil and gas un­der very spe­cif­ic con­di­tions.”

How­ev­er, he stat­ed there were four ques­tions the Prime Min­is­ter had to an­swer with re­gard to its re­la­tion­ship with Venezuela.

Young asked, “Is the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Gov­ern­ment hav­ing any ‘di­rect’ dis­cus­sions and ne­go­ti­a­tions with the act­ing pres­i­dent of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela, Del­cy Ro­dríguez, as the Drag­on field is owned by Venezuela as are Cocuina and Lo­ran?”

He al­so asked if the Prime Min­ster recog­nised Del­cy Roderíguez as the act­ing pres­i­dent of Venezuela while al­so pos­ing the ques­tion, “Has Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar left any and all dis­cus­sions and/or ne­go­ti­a­tions with Venezuela up to BP and Shell, and if so, what does that mean for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go?”

He con­tin­ued, “By be­ing ab­sent and non-ex­is­tent in any such dis­cus­sions and ne­go­ti­a­tions, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is dis­ad­van­tag­ing the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Fi­nal­ly, Young asked, “Is the gov­ern­ment of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela will­ing to still ex­port Venezue­lan gas to Trinidad and To­ba­go af­ter the be­hav­iour of Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her Gov­ern­ment to­wards them over the past ten years?”