United States , Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela
Press Release

OFAC license amendment information

Bnamericas

Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries release

Minister of Energy and Energy Industries and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, the Honourable Stuart R. Young, M.P. hereby confirms that on October 17, 2023 the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of Treasury of the United States Government issued a license amendment to the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GORTT) based upon requests made by GORTT dated March 8, 2023 and September 15, 2023 with respect to, inter alia, the development of the Dragon gas field.

This OFAC license amendment is specific to GORTT and the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) and is for the benefit of GORTT, NGC, Shell plc and their subsidiaries, affiliates and contractors to pursue, inter alia, the planning, financing, development, execution and management of the Dragon gas field.

The license amendment granted to GORTT expires on October 31, 2025 and amongst other things, permits GORTT to negotiate with the Government of Venezuela and PDVSA to obtain exploration and production licences to extract natural gas, to operate the Dragon field and to make various payments associated with such a project including, taxes, royalties, fees and lease bonus payments.

The said amendment further authorizes GORTT, NGC and Shell plc to make payments to the Government of Venezuela in fiat currency, including US dollars or bolivars.

The Minister advises that the OFAC license granted to GORTT is specific and separate to the general license that was issued by OFAC on October 18, 2023 relating to Venezuela that expires on April 18, 2024. That general OFAC license no. 44 does not affect the work being undertaken by GORTT and the Government of Venezuela to produce and export the gas from the Dragon gas field to Trinidad and Tobago.

The Ministry cautions against misleading and false information from individuals who have no knowledge and information with respect to the work being undertaken by GORTT along with the Government of Venezuela for the Dragon project, nor any knowledge and information with respect to the discussions and negotiations that have taken place between GORTT and the Government of the United States, who are now seeking to mislead and create doubt by referring to the said general OFAC license no. 44 issued on October 18, 2023 which expires on April 18, 2024.

As announced by Minister Young on October 17, 2023 it is expected that a Trinidad and Tobago delegation led by Minister Young, will travel to Caracas, Venezuela in the coming weeks to complete negotiations with the Government of Venezuela with respect to the Dragon gas project.

Subscribe to the leading business intelligence platform in Latin America with different tools for Providers, Contractors, Operators, Government, Legal, Financial and Insurance industries.

Subscribe to Latin America’s most trusted business intelligence platform.

Other projects in: Oil & Gas (Trinidad and Tobago)

Get critical information about thousands of Oil & Gas projects in Latin America: what stages they're in, capex, related companies, contacts and more.

  • Project: Sercan Field
  • Current stage: Blurred
  • Updated: 2 months ago
  • Project: Cipero Block
  • Current stage: Blurred
  • Updated: 3 months ago

Other companies in: Oil & Gas (Trinidad and Tobago)

Get critical information about thousands of Oil & Gas companies in Latin America: their projects, contacts, shareholders, related news and more.

  • Company: Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd.  (PPGPL)
  • Phoenix Park Gas Processors (PPGPL) is a Trinidad and Tobago company whose core business is natural gas processing, and the aggregation and fractionating of natural gas liquids....
  • Company: BHP Petroleum (Trinidad 2C) Ltd.  (BHP T&T)
  • BHP Petroleum's Trinidad and Tobago-based activities include active exploration programs offshore and development projects both on and offshore. BHP is the operator of the Great...
  • Company: DeNovo Energy Limited  (DeNovo Energy)
  • DeNovo Energy Limited (DeNovo), branch of the German firm Proman AG, is an upstream company of Trinidad & Tobago based in Couva and operating sins 2016 which is aimed at explori...