PM: US$M for Dragon pipeline

The pipeline is to be built.

These are huge expense, as you would understand; we are talking about hundreds of millions of US dollars to get this done.” He disclosed the general cost of piping gas from Venezuela’s Dragon gas field to the Hibiscus Platform, owned by Shell, on to land at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, Trinidad; where the gas would be processed and sold, at a press conference at Piarco International Airport late Monday evening following his return from an Official Visit to the South American nation earlier that day. Asked how soon industry players in TT’s energy sector could expect gas to start ‘flowing’, the PM said the Government-to-Government agreement has a deadline of 2020. “In the agreement we look at, the latest, 2020 but today (Monday), what the President (Maduro) agreed to, and we in TT agreed to, is that if it could be (sooner), it should be. (So) we are working towards a much earlier date. Therefore, what we are looking at for TT is not an immediate gas supply to our shortfall situation but treating with a worsening situation in the near to medium term.” Rowley and Maduro also used their closed-door, roughly hourlong talks to discuss a wide range of issues, including Venezuela’s outstanding TT$315 million debt owed to Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL). “(Maduro) has committed to liquidating some long-standing debt which exists for CAL, which accumulated at an earlier time when tickets were sold and paid for in Bolivars and the conversion to US was a difficult thing. A significant debt exists and grew up.

The (Venezuelan) Government, by way of the presidential commitment today (Monday), undertook to have that debt serviced.” Venezuela has also put a new arrangement in place, Rowley added, “where tickets out of Venezuela are paid for, not in Bolivars but in US dollars, so this accumulation of an unpaid or unpayable debt would not (recur), so I have some good news for CAL. We agreed that there’s a lot of benefit for both countries for us to remain in communication by way of air and sea.”