PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley will lead a delegation to Venezuela tomorrow to sign an agreement for the development of the across border gas from the Venezuelan Dragon Gas Field, according to an official statement issued here.

The statement from the Office of the Prime Minister noted that the signing of the terms of the agreement will be between the National Gas Company (NGC), the Venezuelan NGC, Shell, and the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company, Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (Petroleum of Venezuela).

The agreement was originally scheduled to have been signed here on Wednesday, but the statement said the accord will be signed in caracas on Saturday.

“This was requested and acceded to due to the concerns about the earthquake,” the statement said, in reference to the 7.0 earthquake that rocked both Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and other Caribbean countries on Tuesday evening.

The Dragon Field is located within Venezuela’s maritime territory, just off the north-west coast of Trinidad. It is close to the Hibiscus platform, jointly owned by the Trinidad and Tobago government and Shell.

Shell is also the operator of Dragon. The deal will hopefully see Venezuelan gas from Dragon transported to Hibiscus and then to Point Fortin, where Atlantic will turn it into liquefied natural gas.

“That’s the plan we’ve been working on for the last three months,” Rowley told reporters here in April.

Shell is also the helping the government develop and process gas from Loran-Manatee, which is off the south-east coast of Trinidad, and spans the maritime borders of Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Loran-Manatee field has an estimated 10.25-trillion cubic feet of gas of which roughly 74 per cent belongs to Venezuela, with 26 per cent belonging to Trinidad and Tobago.