THE Senate will debate a motion on the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela when it sits from 1.30 pm on Tuesday.
Opposition Senator Wade Mark filed the motion.
He is calling on the Government to provide a detailed account of its approach to this project involving entities such as Shell, the National Gas Company, Venezuela and the US government.
In October the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) offered an extension of the license it issued to TT to access natural gas from the Dragon gas field and the ability to pay for that gas in different ways.
Energy Minister Stuart Young announced the extension of the licence to October 31, 2025 at news conference at his ministry on October 17.
The OFAC licence was granted to TT in January.
Young said the extension also allows Government to pay for gas from the field in “fiat currency, as well as US dollars, as well as (Venezuelan bolivares), as well as via humanitarian measures.”
Young said the OFAC licence is now a full green light for the government to do what needs to be done.
He said there have been several virtual meetings with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA “as we now get into the granular level of detail for the pricing of the development of the gas from Dragon.
“Very shortly, I will lead a team back to Venezuela, where I hope for us to finalise those arrangements.
“Not only are we negotiating the commercial terms, the pricing of the gas in Venezuela, the allocation and the other things associated with the commercial terms, we are also negotiating the technical terms, working out with the engineers, particularly those at Shell, how quickly we can develop the Dragon gas field to bring this gas to TT.”
He confirmed that Shell will operate the Dragon field and that gas will be brought to the existing Hibiscus platform for onward transmission to plants in Trinidad.
Young said if all green lights were in place, production could begin in less than two years.
During a Senate sitting on November 21, Young dismissed Mark's claims that TT's improved shareholding in a restructured Atlantic LNG involved a sell-out by Government over the construction of a pipeline to transport natural gas from the Dragon field to the Hibiscus offshore platform in Trinidad and Tobago's waters.
Young said, "That is a figment of the of the Opposition's imagination."
There are no scheduled sittings of the House of Representatives this week.
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