Kamla secures OFAC Dragon license

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar secured an OFAC license through her meeting with Marco Rubio, for resuming Dragón gas field explorations, jointly between Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. This might be a hint that Marco Rubio is moderating a bit. Economic development for Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago and rest of Caribbean is a more desirable option than war. This dragon deal is operated by Shell Oil Company, which would also provide export opportunities for both Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela into the European Union.

Trinidad and Tobago gas industry has been plagued by depletion of resources. Dragón gas field as well as other gas fields in Paria Peninsula Mariscal Sucre Basin, as well as Plataforma Deltana are close to Trinidad & Tobago and can benefit from developed infrastructure of liquefied natural gas in Trinidad & Tobago. Both Venezuela and Trinidad & Tobago should resume joint ventures to restore recently harmed economic and diplomatic relations. Ideally, this should also benefit Guyana, which has recently acknowledged that their previous Exxon Mobil agreements were not fully acceptable for needs of the Guyanese people.

It would be wise for Guyana universities to implement a course about history of Venezuelan petroleum exploration, so that Guyana is spared of shortcomings that Venezuela has endured during more than a century. Venezuela has learned how to strongly negotiate favorable terms for our country. It seems that Guyana also needs to do the same. We must remember that westernmost part of Stabroek is not far from either Trinidad & Tobago or Venezuela: it is adjacent to Plataforma Deltana gas fields. If presidents Irfaan Ali and Nicolás Maduro, as well as Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar may hold a trilateral meeting: that would probably be more important than meeting of any of them with Donald Trump as Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela deserve a joint northern South America and Caribbean strong oil industry, that could be extended into Grenada, Suriname and perhaps Jamaica.

Sovereign exploitation of our countries' valuable petroleum and gas resources must be emphasized. Need of OFAC licenses unfortunately is a nuisance that we must deal with, as Russia and Iran also depend on OFAC licenses for normalization of their petroleum and gas trades. We must remember that sanctioned countries tend to be petroleum countries. As we secure licenses, we are able to tip balance a little bit towards our favor. Trinidad & Tobago population deserves additional income and jobs that will be provided. Processing that gas from Venezuela through PDVSA similarly needs this investment: for developing mechanisms that would untap our gas resources.

We must adhere to a win-win situation which ideally could settle a baseline for solving more complex geopolitical issues such as the Essequibo dispute. Countries such as Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Venezuela should consider our petroleum and gas union as an alternative to unreliable United States policies. We have seen how United States government has been shut down due to an increased polarization between opposing political parties domestically. We recall Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, summoning all generals stationed worldwide for an irrelevant meeting on war ethos, that could have been made online.

United States public opinion is increasingly rejecting possibility of war against Venezuela. If Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who manages Venezuelan hydrocarbon sector, could meet and concentrate on specifics on how to make this deal possible, it would be a long shot. As customary, United States guidance under Marco Rubio will require that restored Dragón gas field deals does not provide any cash payments to PDVSA. While that is not an ideal situation, Venezuela has learned how to cope with that as Chevron already has a confidential license, permitting it to develop Boscán and Orinoco Belt oil fields. Most of that output is exported to United States. Some of that output is given back to Venezuela in barrels of oil, so that Venezuela can sell it to China.

Even though Venezuela suffers many kinds of sanctions, which requires us to reduce price per barrel of oil, we can still produce for a profit. Similarly, it is important that Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela and Shell Oil Company to design a business model that adequately compensates Venezuela for its partnership: perhaps by paying in kind in liquefied natural gas output, so that it can be processed in Venezuela and sold to outside world. Venezuela already has a gas facility at Güiria in Paria Peninsula, not far from island of Trinidad. Perhaps this will be a good time for Venezuela to refurbish our existing infrastructure in Güiria so that we can process gas that will be legally awarded to Venezuela, for allowing Trinidad & Tobago and Shell to exploit Dragón gas field.

As Venezuela, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and United States multilaterally solve our discrepancies, business conditions should improve for all of us. It is also necessary to remember that Chevron's output right now is less than output that Chevron used to have in Venezuelan operations a few months ago, before previous license expired. Some people claim that is because of challenges of employing barter, and other kinds of compensation to Venezuela: as cash payments are prohibited. However, I suspect main reason for a moderate conservative exploration by Chevron is because of threat of war and threat of bombing. Chevron understandably would not like to be very exposed to Venezuela right now due to geopolitical threat of destruction of infrastructure due to war.

United States foreign policy happens through carrots and sticks, not only with Venezuela but with all other countries in general. It does not look to be working out, as United States has deployed a formidable military. Venezuela has outperformed expectations on military response we can offer to support defense of our beloved country. This is second time that Marco Rubio yields to pressures of either Venezuela or Trinidad & Tobago, or other Caribbean countries, or Chevron or Shell Oil Company: to provide OFAC license needed to develop our petroleum and gas resources.

Standard economics suggests that trading nations do not involve into war. If Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela are able to restore their diplomatic and economic relationship, we should all abort possibility of war. That would also increase likelihood of Trinidad and Tobago being well respected within Caricom countries, as there have been recent discrepancies among them because of war threat. It is understandable that such a deal will be extremely difficult, because Trinidad and Tobago has military agreements with United States while Venezuela has military agreements with China, Iran and Russia.

There are many wars going on across the globe. Nobody wants another full sized war to begin in Caribbean. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar should take advantage of this opportunity to avoid Caribbean getting into war. It is necessary that Venezuela deescalates war likelihood in either Trinidad & Tobago or Guyana.

In case of Guyana, there is always this dream of building a binational refinery with Venezuela, which could actually be trinational with Trinidad & Tobago, so that crude oil and gas from all of our countries can be refined or stored in Essequibo. That would entail roads, ferry routes and pipelines across Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela, to adopt existing infrastructure existing in Trinidad and Tobago and supporting refining needs that Venezuela will have as our oil industry recovers: as our national refineries will soon be working at full capacity.

We must gain experience so that we can help out Suriname, Grenada, Jamaica, and Cuba to develop their petroleum and gas assets. It would be interesting to urge Marco Rubio to think about his family origins, and any distant relatives he might still have in Cuba. He should provide Cuba an opportunity to develop their gas and oil industry north of Varadero. Cuba's energy reserves deserve to be untapped and for that to happen, Cuba will also need an OFAC license. Let's hope that international companies are also interested in developing Cuba's energy sector.

We live in a multipolar world. Many citizens of United States are already accustomed to reality that many countries are important. United States is no longer a superpower. Plenty of American citizens would prefer, in case that a war starts, that Venezuela would win because they do not think it is a just war. Human rights considerations concerning shootings of civilian boats is strongly opposed across United States, including many of military forces of United States who have spoken about the subject. Pete Hegseth's speech referred to questionable values that do not represent American society at large. These opponents, which are a majority of United States, would like not to engage into any war. Let's give peace a chance.

Seeking peace is difficult. There are Venezuelan journalists living in United States, who are deeply involved in lobbying for war against their own country. They ridicule a recent New York Times article against war, downgrading it as a plea from Nicolás Maduro not to be killed. Venezuelan high authorities know there is a possibility of death for anyone: they are preparing various scenarios. Best scenario is just to continue business as usual. Dragón field project is business as usual because it was started by Shell, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela under leadership of previous prime minister of Trinidad & Tobago: everything was working wonderfully. Exploration was advanced.

Once terms of new agreement are known, which would involve participation of Venezuelan authorities such as Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez, as well as Kamla Persad-Bissessar and OFAC authorities under guidance of Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, we should be able to reach an OFAC license comparable to what Chevron already enjoys. We must also remember that Chevron also has interests in Loran Plataforma Deltana gas field, which is on Venezuelan domestic waters not far from either Trinidad and Tobago or Guyana.

President Irfaan Ali seems to have moderated a lot during last few weeks, as sizeable population of Essequibo region actually voted for his opponent. Azruddin Mohamed and APNU leadership has made strong opposition on voting conditions. It looks like President Irfaan Ali is concentrated now on healing wounds. Hopefully Irfaan Ali will follow example of Kamla Persad-Bissessar and also apply for an OFAC license to allow PDVSA to participate in Guyana oil industry as an investor, in equal conditions as other investors already operating in Guyana.

Essequibo dispute will remain. Of course, Guyana will continue claiming that outcome of Essequibo dispute will be settled by International Court of Justice. Of course, Venezuela will keep saying that we will not recognize that ruling, and that we will concentrate on dialogue. We should still initiate dialogue on common grounds of economic development for Venezuela, Essequibo and Guyana. Perhaps we will find a piece of hope to gather some consensus on our territorial dispute. We should not wait one hundred additional years fighting between Guyanese and Venezuelans. It is exhausting. It does not benefit any of us.

Three countries together: Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Venezuela would possiblñy be joined by Suriname, Grenada, Jamaica and Cuba. We should be able to form a formidable oil and gas infrastructure and business model common for whole region, that will have a significant weight in OPEC. It is time for populations of our countries to learn about each other. It is necessary for us to apologize, if we have been too harsh on each other at any previous occasion. For example, a Venezuelan newspaper called Venezuela News said that Trinidad & Tobago are under guardianship from United States, just because Kamla Persad-Bissessar requested a new OFAC license. Similar license already existed under last prime minister, meaning that Venezuela also under guardianship.

We already spent a great amount of effort, along with Chevron for an OFAC license allowing Zulia state operations led by Chevron in Boscán field. In current business environment, all licenses are needed. Brics countries have not yet designed an alternative to United States dollar. That will probably appear in next few years. Even Saudi Arabia, despite selling some of its output to China in Chinese yuan, still charges petroleum in dollars. International system remains led by United States financial institutions. Most countries are pressuring for that to change, but it will take time. So, in the meantime, let's concentrate on securing OFAC licenses. It's better to have an OFAC license than not to have it.

Venezuela knows how to fight for our rights. Venezuela has shown to other countries that we have capacity of military defense. Venezuela has also shown we knows how to negotiate for acceptable conditions to our country, regarding oil exploration and refining. Venezuela also knows how to circumvent sanctions. Dragón field is located in Venezuela. There are other fields in Trinidad & Tobago, but specific license Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar requested is for exploration in Venezuela's Dragón field, which is close to Trinidad and Tobago maritime border. It makes more sense that dragon gas is exported to existing infrastructure of Trinidad & Tobago, than building new infrastructure from scratch in Venezuela: Güiria liquefied national gas processing plant is insufficient.

Dragón is a sound deal. It is good news for Caribbean that Marco Rubio and Kamla Persad-Bissessar had this détente or de escalation attempt, which might be welcomed by Venezuela. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez many times has stated, as our highest hierarchy in petroleum deals, that we are open to have petroleum transactions with any country in the world as long as payment is received. President Nicolás Maduro has repeated that often. Payments most likely will be in kind, in barrels of oil equivalent of cubic meters of gas, which would be sold by Venezuela to our regular customers.

As these hydrocarbon deals are adequately sorted out, in the meantime we must continue checking military situation. United States will probably continue deploying more weapons into Puerto Rico. Venezuela will continue fortifying its defense of Caracas, Lake Maracaibo and other crucial locations. United States knows that every day Venezuela continues receiving additional support from our nuclear allies. It is significant that military operations are not conducted by Marco Rubio. They are conducted by Stephen Miller, recently put in charge of operations so that Marco Rubio can concentrate on standard United States foreign policy priorities such as Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Hamas, Iran, and China.

De escalation is difficult because we are accustomed to hate. I have also indulged in some hatred and some intransigency, from now on I will make my best to deescalate my discourse, including apologies to anyone that I may have insulted. My main goal is to promote peace while defending national interest of Venezuela. Our sovereignty must be respected, we aspire to continue extracting our oil and building our infrastructure in an environmentally efficient manner, promoting income badly needed by our population which deserves economic growth. Next few weeks will continue this fight between carrot and stick. Let's hope that carrot continues gaining ground for peace in Caribbean Sea.