RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal does not ex­pect re­cent De­mo­c­ra­t­ic gains in the Unit­ed States midterm elec­tions to af­fect Trinidad and To­ba­go’s en­er­gy arrange­ments with Venezuela, in­clud­ing US li­cences for the de­vel­op­ment of the Drag­on and Lo­ran-Man­a­tee gas fields.

Speak­ing to re­porters on Fri­day night while dis­trib­ut­ing bags of Di­vali treats to mo­torists, pas­sen­gers and res­i­dents at Debe Junc­tion, Mooni­lal said the li­cences had been grant­ed by the US ad­min­is­tra­tion and there was no in­di­ca­tion that the coun­try’s plans would change.

“These li­cences are se­cured, as you know, it is a mat­ter of the Unit­ed States ad­min­is­tra­tion, and we are very con­fi­dent that our progress on both the Drag­on and the Lo­ran field will con­tin­ue,” he said.

Mooni­lal said work was un­der way on a me­ter­ing agree­ment for the Lo­ran field, which had to be com­plet­ed be­fore the li­cence dead­line.

A tech­ni­cal team would first have to trav­el to Venezuela to set­tle out­stand­ing pro­vi­sions and terms in the agree­ments be­fore the en­er­gy min­is­ters of both coun­tries could meet to fi­nalise and sign them, he said.

The Gov­ern­ment hoped to com­plete the process by the end of No­vem­ber. Mooni­lal said it was con­fi­dent work on both projects would con­tin­ue, adding that it had held im­por­tant dis­cus­sions with Shell and oth­er part­ners.

Asked whether De­mo­c­ra­t­ic gains in the midterm elec­tions could af­fect the en­er­gy sec­tor, Mooni­lal said changes in the in­ter­na­tion­al en­er­gy mar­ket did not hap­pen overnight.

He said the Gov­ern­ment was mon­i­tor­ing in­ter­na­tion­al de­vel­op­ments but re­mained con­fi­dent about de­mand for oil and gas.

“There is a huge de­mand for en­er­gy, fos­sil fu­els, oil and gas to 2050. That will not change,” he said.

Mooni­lal al­so point­ed to con­tin­ued glob­al de­mand for crude oil, am­mo­nia and re­fined pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts, say­ing T&T was po­si­tion­ing it­self to ben­e­fit from those mar­kets.

US midterm elec­tions are held halfway through a pres­i­dent’s four-year term. They de­ter­mine all seats in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and a por­tion of the Sen­ate, as well as sev­er­al gov­er­nor­ships and state and lo­cal of­fices. The re­sults can shift the bal­ance of pow­er in Con­gress and in­flu­ence leg­is­la­tion and over­sight for the re­main­der of a pres­i­dent’s term.

The De­mo­c­ra­t­ic gains come amid the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s pol­i­cy to­ward Venezuela, where US sanc­tions and li­cences is­sued by the Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC), a di­vi­sion of the US Trea­sury De­part­ment, gov­ern the ac­tiv­i­ties Amer­i­can and au­tho­rised in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies can un­der­take in the coun­try’s en­er­gy sec­tor.

The li­cences are cen­tral to T&T’s plans to ac­cess Venezue­lan nat­ur­al gas for do­mes­tic use and ex­port through the Drag­on and Lo­ran-Man­a­tee projects.