Venezuela, Trinidad to Discuss Joint Gas Project Development

Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago will continue negotiations on jointly developing a dormant offshore natural gas field, with a meeting scheduled for mid-June in Caracas, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Officials from both governments last met in March in Venezuela, where they signed confidentiality agreements required to set up a negotiation framework, following the issuance in January of a two-year US license green-lighting talks for the project, Reuters reported.
The Dragon field, which lies along the maritime border of the two nations, holds up to 120 billion cubic meters of gas. 
Trinidad needs the fuel to boost its liquefied natural gas and petrochemical industries, and Venezuela hopes to have access to cash flow from gas exports.
“If negotiations go well, gas technically could begin flowing in two years,” Trinidad's Energy Minister Stuart Young told Reuters in March.
Trinidad's National Gas Company and the country's Energy Ministry are expected to hold technical workshops in preparation for the Caracas meetings next month, two of the sources said.
Trinidad and Tobago is not producing enough gas, which has led to the suspension of one of its liquefaction trains.