Young: Don’t leave multinationals to pursue cross border energy deals

Port of Spain North/St Ann's West MP Stuart Young. - File photo

Former prime minister and energy minister Stuart Young has warned government against leaving the pursuit of cross border natural gas from Venezuela solely in the hands of energy multinational energy companies saying TT stands to lose from such an approach.

He made his observation on January 9, one day after Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal indicated at a post-cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s that all was well with respect to government’s pursuit of a six-month Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licence for Venezuela’s Dragon gas project.

In a Facebook post, Young said, “I caution Trinidad and Tobago that this government is leaving the pursuit of cross border gas from Venezuela, including Dragon, solely up to the multinational oil and gas companies.”

He warned, “This will result in lower returns to TT if it ever becomes a reality.”

Furthermore, Young continued, “to see Moonilal and (Prime Minister) Kamla Persad-Bissessar now hoping that the Dragon gas project can become a reality is simply an illustration of hypocrisy and irony as they both spent years trying to derail it...”

In a news conference in Florida on January 3, hours after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cicilia Flores were extracted from Venezuela by American military forces, US President 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.

This week, Trump said he would meet oil executives at the White House on January 9 and that the oil companies would spend ‍at least US$100 billion in Venezuela. Following a meeting in Washington, DC, between 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 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. Young and former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley were involved in the negotiations with the Venezuelan government, alongside energy multinational company Shell, to secure the licence.

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.

At a news conference in Chaguanas on January 4, Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers could not say the securing of a long term OFAC licence to develop Dragon is possible now that Trump said the US will be running Venezuela for the foreseeable future after Maduro’s removal.

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. She indicated the UNC would instead seek gas from Grenada, Guyana and Suriname.

At a news conference at Piarco International Airport on October 1, 2025, 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.”

Young repeated that since the April 28, 2025 general election there were no expired NGC (National Gas Company) gas sales contracts. contrary to claims made by the UNC/.

“All of NGC’s gas sales contracts to downstream petrochemical companies expired as at December 31, 2025 save for two, one which expires in 2026, and another that expires in 2027.

Young said, “So what Moonilal has confirmed is that he, and the UNC government, did nothing for eight months in 2025 to negotiate new gas sales contracts before they expired on December 31, 2025.”