Barbados mediates T&T and Venezuela
Attorney general of Republic of Trinidad & Tobago announced OFAC license for Dragon Project, which would benefit Gas National Company of Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela, for joint exploitation and developmentment of our Caribbean gas resources. This was easy part, as this OFAC license was already approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Terms of this license, however, are confidential. There is no way to know if those confidential terms will be acceptable to Venezuela. Venezuelan PDVSA officials are knowledgeable about confidential terms on existing Chevron license, which is also confidential. It remains to be seen whether Trinidad & Tobago authorities meet with Venezuela authorities to disclose such confidential terms, if such terms will be feasible for Venezuela.
However, in Venezuela, main news is not granting of such license. Good news is that Venezuela and Cuba are getting Oreshnik missiles to defend ourselves from United States aggression. Probably from either Venezuela or Cuba we will be able to launch missiles to United States territory, as a deterrence for hostile attacks. Meanwhile, Trinidad & Tobago is conducting military exercises with United States. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has guaranteed that no United States invasion into Venezuela will come out of Trinidad and Tobago. Only use of such military would be if Venezuela occupies Guyana, such scenario is out of question as our main goal is defensive.
Let's suppose Kamla Persad-Bissessar is genuinely interested in gaining peace with Venezuela and achieving mutual economic development. Why is she granting powers to United States officials for conducting military exercises in Trinidad & Tobago? If an attack were to be launched into Venezuela from Puerto Rico, would military assets of United States inside Trinidad and Tobago also enter Venezuelan territory? Venezuela has repeated many times that we seek peace with United States. We even helped that country by informing them of terrorist attacks that were about to bomb United States embassy in Caracas. Venezuelan authorities averted escalation and averted war.
Venezuela is receiving Russian missiles for our defense. Theoretically we could launch those missiles into continental United States, if United States attacked Venezuela from either Puerto Rico or from a warship in Caribbean. Venezuela is strongly committed to a no strike first policy. We are not sure that Trinidad and Tobago will be able to comply with that as well. Kamla Persad-Bissessar government might extend an olive branch. She needs to come to Venezuela and have a state visit with Maduro, taking a photo opportunity with flags of Venezuela and Trinidad & Tobago: both of them addressing a joint press conference. All this diplomatic standard visual arrangement is needed, otherwise it is quite unlikely for Dragón gas deal to proceed.
Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago during press conference was extremely cautious. He limited his speech as he cannot speak on behalf of Marco Rubio. He cannot speak on behalf of OFAC Office of Foreign Assets Control from United States. He can't speak on behalf of Trinidad & Tobago foreign minister, who at this time has not been able to initiate conversations with Nicolás Maduro government. United States increased military presence in Trinidad is most concerning. Dragón deal cannot go through if United States continues escalating, while rest of Caribbean countries including Barbados have explicitly asked for de escalation of military conflict, claiming that both United States and Venezuela should not continue deploying additional armed forces in the Caribbean.
Trinidad & Tobago is conducting military exercises with United States on Trinidad and Tobago territorial waters, which immediately disqualifies Venezuelan approval of Dragon Gas deal. Regular citizens are usually deprived of this kind of information. I was rejected by Pdvsa. I was rejected by Embassy of Trinidad & Tobago. I made an approach to Embassy of Barbados, explaining that absence of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba in forthcoming Summit of the Americas is not conducive to dialogue and agreements. I also suggested that participation of Barbados National Gas Company, not only in Dragon but perhaps in Rio Caribe, Mejillones, Patao, Cocuina, Loran, Dorado, Plataforma Deltana 3 or Plataforma Deltana 5 provides an ample amount of gas: that could be exploited by blocks through different Caribbean companies, including Barbados National Gas Company.
There are cultural exchanges regarding language, music and arts programs: that embassies worldwide conduct with countries where they are established, as a low risk activity. Barbados and Venezuela host gas fields whose produce is bound for Trinidad & Tobago liquefied natural gas facilities. It would be interesting if Barbados National Gas Company could form a joint agreement with Pdvsa of Venezuela, for exploration of any Plataforma Deltana, Mariscal Sucre or Orinoco belt fields. Venezuela has so much oil and gas that our best bet is to allocate different blocks to different countries, and different companies so that we don't risk a monopoly of any single producer dominating market.
Chevron's participation seems declining as a percentage of total Venezuelan oil and gas production, as stringent terms of Chevron license do not permit either Chevron or Venezuela to operate at a profit. Whatever little output is being extracted by Chevron, and commercialized through confidential license, is set for both Chevron and Pdvesa as a strategic, almost non-commercial operation, limited to a small amount. Big chunk of Venezuelan petroleum and gas exploration goes to China, India and Malaysia. Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez once provided a challenge that we must restore our relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries, promoting Caribbean and Latin American unity.
OFAC license just awarded to Trinidad & Tobago National Gas Company is set to be valid for a period of six months. During these six months, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados should organize trilateral meetings with their respective national oil and gas companies, their presidents and their foreign ministers. Our geographic contiguity is an asset for Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. We all need to become important producers for Caribbean market. Politically, Barbados is in a neutral position regarding strong United States alignment of Trinidad & Tobago versus strong Russia alignment of Venezuela. Approach of Barbados is most suitable for peace. Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados warned that escalation of militaries, both Venezuelan and United States, is not a desirable outcome for the Caribbean Sea.
Venezuela and United States will need to dialogue. Perhaps the United States is offering this six month opportunity, so that authorities of Trinidad and Tobago use license to engage Venezuelan authorities. Venezuelan Petroleum belongs to Venezuelan people. Reason why the Venezuelan oil industry is public and not private allows regular citizens to speak on behalf of our oil that lies below the soil of our country. We invite National Gas Company of Barbados to assist National Oil Company of Trinidad & Tobago and Pdvsa, so that we figure out a Caribbean proposal for peace, petroleum extraction and distribution.
OFAC page restricts licenses and lately sanctions a lot of people from Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. Venezuelans have been sanctioned long ago. Looking to the future, overuse of sanctions is unlikely to do any good. Iran just informed that they just found an incredible gas reserve. They will probably develop it with or without licenses. Venezuelan gas fields along with those of Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are massive. Question now turns whether we should seek to develop them in a Caribbean way, counting with OFAC licenses from United States, or if Venezuela will just leave those fields untouched.
No gas extraction is unattractive as we should take advantage of our resources. Political propaganda always claims that Venezuela has most abundant oil and gas reserves of the world. If we don't exploit them, we would continue in poverty, we continue lacking job opportunities. We really should develop our gas reserves. Venezuela would like Russian or Chinese companies to develop them, but it looks like China is already well positioned in Venezuelan oil industry, and Russia does not seem interested in investing a lot more in Venezuelan oil industry. Emphasis of Russia during cold war, when they were partners with Cuba, was mostly political and military. So is recent support of Russia to Venezuelan political and military hierarchies. To this date we see no significant increase of Russian businesses. However, Venezuela because of all sanctions will not receive any United States investment either.
Venezuela needs Caribbean investment. Alba was supposed to be an avenue for Venezuela to provide petroleum through Petrocaribe to various Caribbean islands. Now we need opposite side of investment. We need Caribbean countries such as Trinidad & Tobago or Barbados to invest resources in Venezuelan businesses, both upstream petroleum and gas, and downstream secondary businesses. Tertiary services would be welcome, such as English classes for Venezuelans in Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago or Guyana; or Spanish classes to various peoples of the Caribbean. Supermarkets might benefit from exports and imports of agroindustrial products. Venezuela agro industrial capacity has increased and Caribbean countries have lots of interesting recipes, many with explicit African and Hindu heritage, which will always be tried by curious Venezuelan consumers who like experimenting with delicacies.
Perhaps Barbados will be able to devise a strategy for defense of Caribbean, taking advantage of United States assets in Trinidad & Tobago along with Chinese, Russian, and Iranian assets in Venezuela. Little by little, by exchanging military information, Caribbean would become an effective zone of peace through strength. However, that would require containment of Iranian, Chinese, Russian, and United States bases in Caribbean countries. At this time, neither Venezuela nor Trinidad & Tobago are in a position of containing Russia, China, Iran, or United States: as we are willingly seeking military investment for defense of our intracaribbean borders. Caricom has not yet gotten to realization that borders of Caribbean Sea refer to the whole region, not individual borders of Caribbean countries which share Caribbean Sea.
We must develop a Caribbean sphere of influence, which sounds extremely difficult as some Caribbean countries are in Alba, other Caribbean countries are not in Alba. As we will soon see in Summit of the Americas in Dominican Republic, there will be a huge fight: Alba versus non Alba. Some countries prefer United States military interference, while other countries prefer not to count on that United States military interference.
In six month window period available for taking advantage of OFAC license, Venezuela should seek to explain to our partners in Alba that investment in our Paria Mariscal Sucre and Plataforma Deltana gas fields is desirable: for greater supplies of gas to Caribbean. It is nice to hear people from Grenada or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines cheerfully supporting Venezuela on military issue. That support is appreciated as indeed we would prefer not to be invaded by United States. We would prefer Trinidad & Tobago to deescalate political tensions with Venezuela, so that Dragón gas deal proceeds. However, if Dragón gas deal does not proceed, Venezuelan output of gas and oil will continue being insufficient.
Venezuela really needs to increase our output. Iran is seeking to increase its output. Russia is seeking to increase its output. We have no Vietnam, Russia, India, China offers for developing Dragon gas field. Shell major oil company currently has no interests in Venezuela, it would enter the country through Dragón gas deal. We are not in situation of prohibiting investment from anyone. However, Venezuela needs good terms. According to what happened with Chevron license, it looks like terms were not attractive for either Chevron or Venezuela, as we continue our relationship but with significantly decreased output. It looks like we need a better agreement with Trinidad & Tobago, according to terms of new OFAC license for developing Dragón gas deal.
Russia and Iran are constantly in conversations with OFAC and United States for improving their terms of trade. We should go away from the politically explosive propaganda that we should do everything outside of United States, unless we were able to do it. It seems that BRICS will eventually achieve that. However, Russia and United States engage into war while simultaneously discussing OFAC licenses. I would like to thank again Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, along with government of sister Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. I also thank Barbados ambassador in Caracas, Venezuela for willing to listen to what I have to say during the next six months. It will be our task to ensure that Dragón gas deal succeeds, for benefit of Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.