Shell says it is mon­i­tor­ing the diplo­mat­ic fall­out be­tween T&T and Venezuela and as­sess­ing any pos­si­ble im­pact on the Drag­on gas project.

In its first pub­lic re­sponse since Venezuela’s Na­tion­al As­sem­bly vot­ed to end bi­lat­er­al en­er­gy agree­ments and de­clare Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar per­sona non gra­ta, the com­pa­ny said, “Shell is close­ly fol­low­ing cur­rent de­vel­op­ments be­tween the gov­ern­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela and the po­ten­tial im­pact on the Drag­on field project. Shell con­tin­ues to fol­low all ap­plic­a­ble laws, in­clud­ing in re­la­tion to trade com­pli­ance.”

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said Fri­day the de­ci­sion by Venezuela would not af­fect the Man­a­tee gas project, which re­mains on track. But he did not com­ment di­rect­ly on Drag­on.

“The Man­a­tee project is safe and will pro­ceed,” he said, adding that the min­istry had con­firmed its sta­tus with stake­hold­ers.

In Ju­ly 2024, Shell T&T took the fi­nal in­vest­ment de­ci­sion on the Man­a­tee gas field.

Mooni­lal said de-uni­ti­sa­tion arrange­ments al­ready in place al­low each coun­try to de­vel­op gas re­sources in­de­pen­dent­ly. “Be­cause of that process and the le­gal frame­work es­tab­lished, both coun­tries can pro­ceed with projects in their own wa­ters,” he said.

Asked who in Venezuela had pro­vid­ed as­sur­ances, he said dis­cus­sions were han­dled “through all our stake­hold­ers and through diplo­mat­ic, state-to-state re­la­tions”. Mooni­lal added that T&T was not de­pen­dent on Venezue­lan gas. “We have a ro­bust plan for ex­plo­ration, pro­duc­tion and de­vel­op­ment of oil and gas with Shell, BP, EOG and Paren­co. We have ab­solute­ly no com­mer­cial re­la­tion­ship with Venezuela as it re­lates to gas. We do not pro­duce any­thing at this point. We are not los­ing a dol­lar,” he said.