News
Corey Connelly
An Hour Ago
Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley. – File photo
FORMER prime minister Dr Keith Rowley has challenged the government to reveal the details of the six-month OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) licence it was granted by the US to pursue negotiations for a Dragon gas deal with Venezuela.
He warned that a failure to do so could place Trinidad and Tobago under serious threat, jeopardising the future of the children in the country.
Dr Rowley was speaking at a news conference on October 10, a day after Attorney General John Jeremie announced that the government was granted a six-month OFAC licence by the US to begin negotiations with the South American country.
Jeremie did not divulge details of the arrangement but said the licence was granted on October 8 and issued under certain executive orders and authorised people including employees, affiliates, contractors and service providers employed by or acting on the behalf of TT, NGC, Shell PLC, Futura Clara Ltd and its subsidiaries, to engage in transaction with Venezuelan state-owned energy company PDVSA on the gas deal.
Jeremie said the arrangement entered into by the government was different from what was negotiated by the former PNM administration.
He added while the previous government’s approach was to licence the entire project, on this occasion it is a “tiered approach’ in which TT was granted a licence that will extend until April 2026.
Jeremie also said the government was able to secure the licence within months at a cost of less than half a million dollars as compared to the former PNM administration, which spent more than $120 million with “nothing to show for it after two years.”
During his news conference, Rowley observed that the government was not speaking directly to Venezuela on the issue as was done by his administration.
He said, “If today, what is required is Trinidad and Tobago talking to Venezuela to bringing Venezuela around to get us back to where we were on the day when the last OFAC licence was cancelled, if we can’t get that done today, it is largely going to be because of the misbehaviour and the missteps and the misspeaking and the carelessness, and the don’t-care-damn of the government of Trinidad and Tobago dating back to 2016.”
