Venezuela proposes ending gas agreement with T&T
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez announced today that the government has proposed to President Nicolás Maduro the immediate denunciation of the Energy Cooperation Framework Agreement with Trinidad and Tobago.
The agreement, signed in 2015 with a ten-year validity and automatically renewed earlier this year for an additional five years, governs a wide range of joint energy initiatives, including the development and treatment of shared gas deposits, infrastructure projects, and the monetization of shared hydrocarbon resources.
Speaking at a news conference, Rodríguez stated that the directive was issued jointly by Venezuela’s Ministry of Energy and state oil company PDVSA. She explained that Article 13, number 3, of the agreement grants either party the authority to formally renounce the deal. She described the agreement as “very broad” and said the denunciation would be a responsible measure to protect Venezuela’s national interests.
Rodríguez also called for the suspension of all gas agreements between the two countries, arguing that Trinidad and Tobago’s new government has shifted its foreign policy in a way that undermines regional solidarity. She accused the Prime Minister of aligning with the United States to pursue policies she described as “attacking Venezuela, Colombia, and South America” and warned against attempts to take Venezuelan gas resources.
“The position of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago is surprising,” Rodríguez said, adding that her government had “decided to believe the little birds that were sold to her from the United States” regarding energy resources. She stressed that energy cooperation, not unilateral action or external influence, remains the only acceptable path between the two nations.
This development comes amid escalating tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. has accused of leading a drug trafficking network. Recent U.S. military operations in the Caribbean targeted Venezuelan drug channels, further straining relations.
Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has publicly backed the U.S. operations. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently met with Persad-Bissessar in Washington to express U.S. support for the Dragon gas plan, ensuring it does not benefit the Maduro regime.
In response to these developments, Trinidad and Tobago has secured a six-month license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), permitting negotiations with Venezuela on the Dragon gas project.
The license allows U.S. persons, including employees, affiliates, contractors, and service providers employed by or acting on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited, Shell PLC, Futura Clara Limited, and their subsidiaries, affiliates, and contractors, to engage in transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to negotiations with the Government of Venezuela for six months initially.
