PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Stuart Young said he held “successful” discussions with the United States (US) Secretary of State, Marco Rubio on Wednesday and that he remains confident that the country’s oil agreements with Venezuela to develop the energy sector will not be significantly affected.

Young, speaking at the end of the weekly Cabinet meeting, told reporters that during his meeting with Rubio in Jamaica, Port of Spain had been able to advocate what is best for the country and the wider Caribbean Community (Caricom) after Washington had earlier announced a new directive that eliminates oil and gas licences for foreign companies in Venezuela.

Trinidad and Tobago has been planning to request an extension from Washington for a license granted to Shell and the National Gas Company (NGC) to develop the Dragon gas project in Venezuela.

The license, initially issued in early 2023, allows the companies to proceed with planning the project, which aims to supply gas to Trinidad by 2027. The Dragon Field is located in Venezuelan waters near the maritime border with Trinidad.

In 2023, the US amended the license to permit payments to Venezuela and its state company PDVSA in hard currency or in kind, extending its expiration to October 2025. Shell and NGC require an extension to begin production following their final investment decision (FID), expected this year.

US State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, speaking following the talks between Young and Rubio, said the American official had thanked Prime Minister Young for “Trinidad and Tobago’s cooperation to promote energy security, deepen our security partnership, and enhance coordination on the deportation of illegal aliens”.

Young said at all times during the meeting “there was mutual respect and an understanding of both countries’ positions on certain policy matters”.

“It gave me…the opportunity first-hand to discuss with the Secretary of State the matters in energy. They had as one of the items, as did we, the need to discuss energy security, not only for us here domestically but throughout the region, and as I emphasised, we also do supply LNG (liquefied natural gas) products to Chile in South America …and in the past to the eastern seaboard of the United States.”

Young said he then took the discussion to the “Dragon gas deal, to our relationship with Venezuela and emphasised the importance of it, not only to Trinidad and Tobago, but I was able to set out how it will also affect the rest of the Caricom region because of the important role we play in supporting some of our Caricom brother and sister nations throughout the region.”

“That was accepted,” Young said, adding, “Yesterday was a day that was a good day for Trinidad and Tobago.”

He said, as a result, he was able to get into some level of “granular detail and discuss with the Secretary of State, who is one of the main people who is going to be charged with determining the policy to deal with Venezuela and, in particular, energy going forward, exactly how this transaction is structured, the work we have already done with Shell to make it a reality and the effects that I will have in particular on the rest of the region”.

“I was happy in that conversation; Secretary of State Rubio did indicate that he was pleased with the information because he was getting it first-hand. He understood, and he said that US foreign policy is in no way meant to affect or harm Trinidad and Tobago, in particular with what we are doing for energy security.”

Young said that there was a recognition that “Trinidad and Tobago’s role in energy security is not limited to our domestic situation”.

Young said he also discussed ongoing exploration work in the gas and energy section, “and his team understood that because these are the conversations I have been having with the decision-makers in Washington for the past few years”.

The specific amended Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) license issued to Trinidad and Tobago on October 17, 2023, is valid until October 31, 2025. Trinidad and Tobago also secured a 30-year exploration and production license from the government of Venezuela for the Dragon gas field on December 21, 2023.

Young, who is also the energy and energy industries minister, told reporters that with the Dragon field project “we are continuing… We haven’t slowed down”.

“Understand, please, as our largest trading ally, the effects that can have if it doesn’t happen, and Secretary of State Rubio is very, very clear that he appreciated the opportunity to hear from us… and the effects it would have, and he kept emphasising, ‘We are not going to harm Trinidad and Tobago.”