Trinidad and Tobago and the US have agreed to seek ways to prevent Washington's sanctions on Venezuela's energy sector from harming the Caribbean country's natural gas production and energy security, both governments said.
The administration of President Donald Trump revoked licenses earlier this month that had been granted by former president Joe Biden's government to gas-short Trinidad to develop the Dragon and Cocuina gas fields that straddle the maritime border with Venezuela.
"Both sides agreed that we are going to work very closely to find a solution that achieves US objectives regarding Venezuela without harming Trinidad," the US State Department and Trinidad prime minister Stuart Young said.
But neither government indicated how Trinidad would find alternative sources of feedstock in the short term to lift output of midstream and downstream products.
Young and US secretary of state Marco Rubio discussed Trinidad's concerns in an 18 April telephone conversation, Young's office said.
"Any outcomes of sanctions upon the Maduro regime and Venezuela is in no way indicative of our relationship with Trinidad and Tobago and the value we place on it," the state department said.
Trinidad regards the cross-border gas fields as future sources of feedstock to counter a fall in domestic output that has suppressed LNG, petrochemicals and fertilizer production.
It has struggled to recover gas flow since November 2017, following a long slide from a 4.3 Bcf/d peak in 2010.
Trinidad's 2024 natural gas production of 2.53 Bcf/d was 2pc less than in the previous year, according to the latest data from the energy ministry.
The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) had cleared the way for Trinidad and Venezuela to develop the 4.3 trillion cf Dragon field.
Ofac also granted BP and Trinidad's state-owned gas company NGC a license to develop the cross-border Cocuina-Manakin field, which contains at least 1 trillion cf. The Trump administration revoked licenses both this year.
