US BLANKS ROWLEY ON DRAGON GAS

THE 4.2-trillion cubic feet-rich Dragon Gas field remains dead in the water – at least for now.

The United States is continuing to blank the appeals of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley to facilitate the monetising of the natural gas reservoir.

Senior US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are sidestepping Rowley’s requests because of the continued dictatorship of Venezuela’s leader Nicholas Maduro.

The Americans have imposed sanctions on Maduro in order to press for democratic rule in Venezuela.

That means the Dragon Field, which Rowley gleefully proclaimed last January, would not be explored to fuel T&T’s lagging liquefied natural gas and petrochemical industries.

Rowley’s plea to Blinken on the sidelines of the recent Caricom conference has yielded nothing.

The Prime Minister and Energy Minister Stuart Young have also appealed in vain to members of the US Congress and other prominent American officials.

Over the past few days, Young made a pitch to executives of Shell while attending an LNG conference in Vancouver, Canada.

Shell owns the neighbouring Hibiscus field, in T&T’s maritime waters.

Rowley’s campaign has extracted only diplomatic speak from the US, with the State Department saying it is “certainly open to further discussions” on the matter.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Caribbean and Haiti Barbara Feinstein made it clear that the US wants “free and fair elections” and “a peaceful restoration of the democratic process in Venezuela.”

The US has blocked financial transactions with respect to Dragon Gas yields, leading to angry push-back from Maduro.

The US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) had previously granted a special licence to the TT Government to explore the rich gas field in Venezuela’s maritime territory.

While Blinken did not speak out on Venezuela during his visit to T&T, he was outspoken during a subsequent trip to Guyana.

He criticised the disqualification of leading Venezuelan presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado from holding public office.

He said the move “sends the opposite message” and is “deeply, deeply unfortunate.”

The Secretary of State said the sanctions are meant to restore democracy and lead to free and fair elections in Venezuela.

Rowley has spoken for his support for democracy in Venezuela but clearly has no influence on hardliner Maduro.

In May, the Prime Minister took a swipe at the US, saying that T&T was suffering “collateral damage” as a result of the sanctions.

He said that while Venezuela has agreed to export gas to T&T, it is being “impeded” by US foreign policy.

“As a result of that policy, we have been deprived of commercial access to significantly available commercial gas,” he protested.

Rowley had previously spoken of exporting some of the gas to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

The US has pledged to assist T&T and the rest of the Caribbean in crime-fighting but is not budging on its stiff sanctions against Venezuela.

So, the abundant Dragon Gas field would remain unexplored, and under the control of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

And the Rowley Government continues to struggle to find rich gas fields to power up faltering industrial plants and boost the economy.