Dragon deal in doubt after Maduro’s removal

Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers addresses the media at a news conference at the UNC headquarters, Chaguanas on January 4. - Photo by Innis Francis

THERE is no certainty of Trinidad and Tobago securing a long term arrangement to explore and develop Venezuela’s Dragon gas field after the capture and extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from the South American nation on January 3.

But government is certain of its full support for the US National Security Strategy 2025 document, published by the White House last November, because this strategy can guarantee the country’s long term protection from all external security threats.

Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers made these points when he addressed a news conference at UNC headquarters in Chaguanas on January 4.

In a news conference in Florida on January 3, hours after Maduro and his wife Cicilia Flores were extracted from Venezuela by American military forces, US President Donald Trump said American oil companies will be going into Venezuela to fix its “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country.”

He previously claimed Venezuela stole oil and other energy assets from the US.

Following a meeting in Washington, DC, between Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on September 30, 2025, TT was granted a six-month licence from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for Venezuela’s Dragon gas project.

This was outlined in statements later that day by the Office of the Prime Minister and the US State Department about agreement being reached to continuing TT-Venezuela cross-border energy initiatives, which began under the former PNM administration.

The State Department specifically identified the Dragon gas project in its statement.

The former PNM administration had secured a 30-year licence to explore and develop Dragon in December 2023.

This licence was scrapped in April after Trump won the November 2024 US presidential election. Also scrapped was an OFAC licence for the Cocuina-Manakin project.

Last year, the Venezuelan government cut energy ties with TT because of government’s support for the ongoing US military deployment in the Southern Caribbean. Then Venezuelan Vice-President (now interim president) Delcy Rodriguez vowed TT would not receive a single molecule of her nation’s natural gas because of its support for the US.

Asked if TT can now be certain of a long term OFAC licence to develop Dragon because Trump said the US will be running Venezuela for the foreseeable future after Maduro’s removal, Sobers said, “The OFAC situation is something that is continuous.

“Developing the Dragon gas... Cocuina-Manakin...Loran/Manatee...they are all continuously developing situations.” He added none of these matters are something “that is going to start today and finish tomorrow.”

Sobers said, “It is a quite a couple years long process to develop the gas, extract it and bring it to shore and ship it out accordingly and utilise it.

“That is something that is being continuously looked at and worked on and we will update the population accordingly.”

On May 6, at a swearing-in ceremony for government ministers at President’s House, St Ann’s, Persad-Bissessar declared the Dragon gas deal dead. Persad-Bissessar indicated the UNC would instead seek gas from Grenada, Guyana and Suriname.

The ability of TT to obtain any sustainable gas supplies from any of these countries is doubtful either because of no available resources or resources already committed elsewhere.

At a news conference at Piarco International Airport on October 1, Persad-Bissessar said, “From day one when we came into office, we began work on that OFAC licence (for Dragon).”

“We had further discussions with Secretary Rubio on other fields – Loran/Manatee and Cocuina-Manakin.”

During her response to the 2025/2026 budget in the House of Representatives on October 17, 2024, Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles called on the government to disclose what commitments it made to the US in exchange for the award of the six-month OFAC licence. While admitting to not knowing what the US National Security Strategy 2025 was or what its contents were, Sobers said government supported any policy that will ensure the security of the population against transnational criminal threats. “Any policy, by any country that will ensure that, that occurs, TT and this administration led by the Prime Minister will support (it).” The document, which is signed by Trump, reiterated the US’s vision for the Western Hemisphere as one “whose governments co-operate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organisations.”

Persad-Bissessar has supported all aspects of the ongoing US military deployment in the Southern Caribbean, the establishment of a US military radar system at the ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago and the indefinite granting of US military transit flights into and out of the Piarco and ANR Robinson International airports.

Sobers repeated Persad-Bissessar’s optimism on a US-led governance structure in Venezuela, “We have always stood on the side of the people of Venezuela.We want a safe, secure, transparent and democratic transition

“The PM has always been extremely diplomatic in her use of language as it pertains to the evolving position in Venezuela and will continue to do so.”