THE Government is getting jumpy over the Dragon Gas project, its meal ticket to the next general election.
In doing so, the Rowley Administration has virtually confirmed the earlier exclusive report by CounterPunchTT that the cross-border venture is in serious danger.
Energy Minister Stuart Young has acknowledged that the Government is lobbying Republican and Democratic legislators in the United States.
Young did not state who is lobbying on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Government has a rolling US $1.2 million (TT $8.4 million) a year contract with a firm headed by T&T national Arthur Collins to lobby on behalf of this country.
It is not known what Collins has achieved on behalf of T&T over the past nine years.
But the attempt to petition US lawmakers is almost sure to fail.
As we explained in a previous article, incoming President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marcio Rubio have a hard-line stand against Venezuelan despotic leader Nicolas Maduro.
They want Maduro removed from power for his vote-rigging of Venezuela’s July presidential election.
The US has recognised opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as Venezuela’s president.
Rubio has said that Maduro’s claim of electoral victory “does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
He has termed Maduro a “tyrant” who has sent dangerous criminals, including the brutal Tren de Aragua gang, to the US, where it is “wreaking havoc on our streets.”
In 2018, Rubio said he would not rule out a military option in Venezuela, stating that the country has become a threat to the US.
Maduro is also indicted in the US for narco-trafficking.
Experts say that in its crackdown on Maduro, the US is likely to refuse to authorise monetising of the Dragon Gas project.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) could withdraw permission to explore the field, which has a daily capacity of 350 million cubic feet of gas.
The OFAC authorisation stipulates that Venezuela is not to receive any cash payments.
Venezuela is aiming to develop the project through its State firm PDVSA.
Rubio would push for maximum sanctions against Venezuela, various experts have said.
In 2019, he accused T&T of assisting Cuba to circumvent the US trade embargo.
With the hawkish approach by Trump and Rubio, Maduro’s is in grave danger of being ousted from his presidential palace, and all his agreements scrapped or reviewed.
That likelihood must be giving Rowley and Young serious jitters since Dragon Gas is the PNM regime’s showpiece venture for the upcoming general election.
Lobbying congressional members is also a futile exercise since a decision on Dragon Gas would come from the White House.
Rowley and Young boast that exploration will begin in 2027 and that it will save the economy, which has been declining because of lower oil and gas yields.
While the Prime Minister and Energy Minister are panicking, they have not revealed who is the lobbyist in Washington.
T&T has not had an ambassador to Washington since Brigadier Anthony Phillips-Spencer was brought back to head the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) last March.
