Former Trinidad PM Keith Rowley accuses AG of misleading public over Dragon gas project

Former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has hit back at Attorney General John Jeremie’s assertion that the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration spent over $120 million on negotiations for the Dragon gas project “with nothing to show for it.”

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“For an Attorney General to be attempting to so mislead the population, that is a frightening thing,” Rowley said during a press briefing at his Glencoe home on Friday. “He is taking the position to haltingly mumble and lie to the population; this is a serious matter.”

Jeremie, speaking at a Thursday news conference, said Trinidad and Tobago had been granted a six-month window under a newly issued Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licence from the U.S. Treasury Department, allowing the Government and the National Gas Company (NGC) to formally engage with Venezuela on developing the Dragon gas field.

According to Jeremie, the United National Congress (UNC) Government obtained the new licence for less than half a million dollars, a fraction of what he said the previous PNM administration had spent.

But Rowley dismissed those claims, accusing Jeremie of deliberately misleading the public and failing to acknowledge the previous administration’s groundwork and legitimate costs tied to the project.

“There is no way that we would have spent one hundred million dollars on this issue, as Mr. Jeremie would have said,” Rowley stated. “If you compare apples with apples—where he said they spent half a million dollars—I don’t know on what. Since he said that, you may want to ask him what did you spend it on?”

The former prime minister said NGC made a US$1 million payment to become a partner in the project, while other costs included legal fees and technical assessments. “There would have been a payment of a sign-on bonus—maybe in the order of 4 or 5 million USD—and legal fees in the order of 2 or 3 million USD,” Rowley explained, adding that part of the funds went toward examining the integrity of the Hibiscus platform.

Rowley outlined what he described as a “long, strategic, and determined pursuit” to secure access to gas from Venezuela’s Dragon field, a process he said began in 2016 under the PNM. He detailed how between 2017 and 2018, technical and commercial negotiations took place among Shell, PDVSA, and the NGC, with then-minister Stuart Young playing a key role.

He noted that the process was halted in 2019 after U.S. sanctions effectively froze the project, but maintained that his administration kept diplomatic channels open with Caracas. By 2020, he said, discussions were progressing when Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez visited Trinidad and Tobago — a visit that sparked controversy at the time.

Rowley argued that his administration’s groundwork paved the way for the current progress on the Dragon gas project and rejected any suggestion of mismanagement. He also downplayed the significance of the current government’s six-month licence, noting that his administration previously secured a two-year licence covering several related areas.

Cautioning the government to proceed with humility as negotiations continue, Rowley said the Dragon gas project’s advancement was built on “persistent lobbying and strategic engagement” with international partners.

“In international relations, countries are sometimes very far apart, but when they examine their interests, they eat humble pie,” he said. “If you misstep, you have a duty to walk it back… but to come and try to pretend that your arrangement that you settled with somebody else is a new improvement is just gaslighting a nation.”