WEST INDIAN WONDERLAND AWAKES
The following statement was released by us Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs the Honourable Mélanie Joly, and the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly on the Venezuela Negotiations in Barbados on October 17, 2023. :-
We welcome the Venezuelan-led political agreement reached today in Barbados. This agreement represents a necessary step in the continuation of an inclusive dialogue process and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. We support a peaceful negotiated outcome that leads to fair and competitive elections and a return to economic stability and security.
We continue to call for the unconditional release of all those unjustly detained, the independence of the electoral process and judicial institutions, freedom of expression including for members of the press, and respect for human and political rights. We will work with our international partners and others to address the urgent needs of all Venezuelans inside and outside their country and to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
We are grateful to Barbados for hosting the negotiations and to Norway for its leadership in facilitating the negotiations.
US Treasury Issues New Venezuela General Licences
WASHINGTON –October 18, 2023
In response to the signing of an electoral roadmap agreement between Venezuela’s Unitary Platform and representatives of President Maduro, and in support of the Venezuelan people, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today issued 4 General Licenses suspending select sanctions.
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has forcefully expressed his support for the Palestinian cause and against Israel where President Biden is visiting to halt escalation of war and announced $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestiniand in Gaza and the West Bank.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson issued the following statement on the General Licences:
“The United States welcomes the signing of an electoral roadmap agreement between the Unitary Platform and Maduro representatives. Consistent with U.S. sanctions policy, in response to these democratic developments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued General Licenses authorizing transactions involving Venezuela’s oil and gas sector and gold sector, as well as removing the ban on secondary trading.
Treasury is prepared to amend or revoke authorizations at any time, should representatives of Maduro fail to follow through on their commitments. All other restrictions imposed by the United States on Venezuela remain in place, and we will continue to hold bad actors accountable. We stand with the Venezuelan people and support Venezuelan democracy.”
Treasury today:
- Issued a six-month general license temporarily authorizing transactions involving the oil and gas sector in Venezuela. The license will be renewed only if Venezuela meets its commitments under the electoral roadmap as well as other commitments with respect to those who are wrongfully detained.
- Issued a second general license authorizing dealings with Minerven – the Venezuelan state-owned gold mining company – which Treasury assesses would have the effect of reducing black-market trading in gold.
- Amended two relevant licenses to remove the secondary trading ban on certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds and PdVSA debt and equity. The ban on trading in the primary Venezuelan bond market remains in place.
- Treasury assesses that this, too, would have the positive effect of displacing nefarious players in this market, and with negligible financial benefit to the Venezuelan regime.
OFAC provided several Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
DRAGON LIFELINE
18 October
TT Minister of Energy Stuart Young announced that the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) extended the licence allowing Trinidad and Tobago to trade with Venezuela to October 31, 2025 and granted permission to pay Venezuela in US dollars, bolivares, fiat currency and humanitarian aid, for gas from the Dragon field.
He told media , “I am pleased to announce that today (Tuesday), the US government has issued, through the treasury department OFAC, to the government of TT, an amendment to the licence that we had requested in the terms that we have requested. The licence will now run for two years until October 31, 2025, which is more than enough time for us to get done what needs to get done. It also allows TT, working along with NGC and Shell, to negotiate and complete negotiations and all agreements with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA for the development, production and export of that gas from the Dragon gas field for us in TT to develop it and to make payments in fiat currency, US dollars, Bolivars and via humanitarian measures, which is what was envisaged initially.”
Young said there are no restrictions on the amount of US dollars used to pay Venezuela. The agreement signed with Venezuela in September, in addition to continued negotiations for the development of Dragon field, permitted continued discussions with the Venezuelan government for other gas fields and other gas developments.
“It also got down to granular level detail with respect to the allocation of gas and for all of the gas from Dragon to come to TT and the allocation of that gas both to our domestic petrochemical sector as well as the LNG sector, for Shell to continue to be our operator and our partner in these arrangements.”
Young said the OFAC licence is now a full green light for the government to do what needs to be done. There were several virtual meetings with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA “as we now get into the granular level of detail for the pricing of the development of the gas from Dragon.
“Very shortly, I will lead a team back to Venezuela, where I hope to finalise those arrangements. Not only are we negotiating the commercial terms, the pricing of the gas in Venezuela, the allocation and the other things associated with the commercial terms, we are also negotiating the technical terms, working out with the engineers, particularly those at Shell, how quickly we can develop Dragon field to bring gas to TT.”
He confirmed that Shell will operate the Dragon field and that gas will be brought to the existing Hibiscus platform for onward transmission to plants in Trinidad. If all green lights were in place, production could be done in less than two years.
The PM, who left for Canada early on Tuesday, had been apprised of the development.
“We have remained engaged with him, discussing it from 6 am . Word came to me today from the US government and then via our lawyers in Washington, DC. Immediately the PM was told of this great and significant development, and we have been discussing and strategising the next moves going forward.”
The OFAC licence granted to TT was only the second such licence granted for trade with Venezuela and for the longest period, with the other being a three-month licence granted to oil company Chevron. The original OFAC licence to TT was granted in January 2023.
The PM and Young have been part of negotiations with the US and Venezuelan governments since 2022.
Asked whether removal of US sanctions on Venezuela was discussed, Young said, “I have had many conversations with the US government at the highest level, as well as my Venezuelan counterparts, at all stages. We have continued to encourage dialogue and at all stages, I can say and report – including on the last occasion I was in Venezuela having meetings and conversations – we encouraged dialogue and held out that TT remains available to assist in conversations, we can be a meeting place, these kinds of things. We are always well received by President Maduro and his government as well as the US government at the highest levels.”
The TT Energy Chamber on Tuesday warmly welcomed the announcement, a significant development for the energy industry in TT.
“The announcement represents an important further milestone in the plans to import natural gas from Venezuela for use in our well-developed existing downstream gas industry and LNG export facilities. This natural gas will help return the mid and downstream infrastructure in Trinidad to capacity utilisation and will provide the world with a much-needed secure source of LNG and petrochemicals, such as methanol and ammonia.”
The Chamber commended the government and its partners, NGC and Shell, in progressing this important project and looked forward to further updates as commercial and technical agreements are finalised.
These OFAC concessions have not come out of the blue. The US government had previously said it would consider easing restrictions on Venezuela if Madura allowed free and fair elections.
The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday that Venezuela’s government and a faction of its opposition agreed formally to work together to “reach a series of basic conditions for the next presidential election, including scheduling the contest for the second half of 2024.
“Their accord was part of agreements that are expected to trigger partial relief from economic sanctions imposed by the US government on President Nicolás Maduro’s administration,” AP reported.
The Washington Post, on Tuesday, said leaders from the government and the opposition formalised the deal in Barbados, facilitated by the Norwegian government with US representatives present. It said Maduro had pledged to allow all parties to choose their candidates, allow missions from the EU and UN to observe the vote, and grant all campaigns fair access to the media.
‘ https://www.energy.gov.tt/ofac-license-amendment-information/
20 October 2023
OFAC LICENSE AMENDMENT INFORMATION
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.
Dragon Dance
2023 10/20
Minister of Energy, Stuart Young, said that the specific licence granted by the US government on October 17 to develop the Dragon natural gas field is separate from a general licence granted to Venezuela on October 18.
He made the distinction between the two licences following a virtual news conference hosted by Ravi Balgobin Maharaj, who accused the Government of “hiding less favourable information,” before concluding that T&T only has six months to pay for the natural gas from the Dragon field.
Young confirmed that on October 17, 2023 the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of Treasury of the United States Government issued a licence amendment to this Government based on requests made by Government on March 8, 2023 and September 15, 2023 with respect to, inter alia, the development of the Dragon gas field. The OFAC licence amendment is specific to Government and the National Gas Company (NGC) and is for the benefit of Government, NGC, Shell and their subsidiaries, affiliates and contractors to pursue, inter alia, the planning, financing, development, execution and management of the Dragon gas field.
The licence amendment granted to this Government expires on October 31, 2025 and among other things, permits the Government 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 OFAC licence granted is specific and separate to the general license 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 Government 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 licence no. 44 issued on October 18, 2023 which expires on April 18, 2024,.”
The Energy Ministry published the OFAC amendment on 20 October 2023, hence public anxiety over the Minister’s brief report on 17th, 3 days earlier.
Balgobin Maharaj’s claims T&T is being used as “a carrot on a stick for the US to dangle in front of the Maduro regime to hold democratic elections in that country.” For that reason it is very unlikely that anything will result from these negotiations adding that “once again the PNM would have failed to deliver on their promises to this country and its citizens.”
Balgobin based his claims on a statement by the US Department of the Treasury on October 18, 2023, titled, “In Response to Electoral Roadmap, Treasury Issues New Venezuela General Licenses.“
Quoting from the document Balgobin said,“…Treasury is prepared to amend or revoke authorisations at any time, should representatives of Maduro fail to follow through on their commitments. All other restrictions imposed by the United States on Venezuela remain in place, and we will continue to hold bad actors accountable.”