Young: Moonilal has not seen OFAC licence

News Clint Chan Tack 12 Hrs Ago

Opposition MP Stuart Young at a recent media briefing at the Opposition Leader's office in Port of Spain. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle

FORMER prime minister and energy minister Stuart Young says Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal has confirmed that he (Moonilal) is unaware of the details of a six month US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licence to begin negotiations with Venezuela with respect to the Dragon gas project.

Young said Moonilal made this confirmation in a statement issued on October 10.

In a subsequent Facebook post, Young said the statement confirmed Moonilal's ignorance of the energy matters which are currently topical.

He rejected Moonilal's comments about documentation at the ministry about the project only being in Spanish,and about the previous OFAC licences awarded last December under the PNM, also being in Spanish

"This confirms to me, and the population, that Moonilal has not even seen the current six month provisional licence as an OFAC licence is a document issued by the US Treasury Department in English."

Young said, "Furthermore, the OFAC licence was provided by OFAC to NGC’s (National Gas Company's) lawyers who in turn provided it to NGC so perhaps that would be the place to look for a copy."

Young said the exploration and production licence which the Venezuelan government issued to the former PNM administration with respect to Dragon was issued in Spanish "as it has to be, in accordance with Venezuelan law."

But he added, "Both NGC and Shell had external lawyers advising and translating the documents, along with an official translator, into English."

Young said, "All Moonilal has done is once again confirmed that the government is incompetent and has no clue how to conduct the task in front of it."

Referring to Moonilal's criticism of statements made by former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley at a news conference earlier in the day, Young said Rowley made it clear the documents he was referring to were not official Energy Ministry documents as Moonilal seemed to suggest.

He added the recent decision to transfer former ministry permament secretary Pennelope Bradshaw-Niles to another government ministry deprived Moonilal of access to institutional knowledge on matters such as this.

Young said, "It is now crystal clear to the population why Minister Moonilal is being left out of complex energy negotiations.