Cross-border
talks in Caracas
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
10 22 06
A
team from T&T will head for Caracas this morning
to continue negotiations on a cross-border agreement
between T&T and its South American neighbour.
The
team will continue working on the framework agreement
that will decide legal issues, taxation and methods
of production.
It
was on Sunday that Prime Minister Patrick Manning
announced that he expected T&T would be in a
position to sign a cross-border agreement with Venezuela
by the end of the year.
Already,
a technical agreement had been reached by the two
countries regarding the Loran/Manatee field.
While
the Prime Minister is hopeful that an agreement
will be reached by year’s end, there is still
no clear decision on whether Venezuela will allow
some of its gas to be liquefied in T&T.
The
Manning administration had been open in its desire
to use some of Venezuela’s gas to buttress
T&T’s position as the leading LNG exporter
in the western hemisphere.
However,
T&T’s ambassador to Venezuela Sheelagh
De Osuna recently said Caracas had not sent any
signals that it was be willing to have some of its
gas used here.
“I
have not seen it written anywhere, nor have I heard
from any official anything to suggest Venezuela’s
gas will be used anywhere else except in Venezuela,”
De Osuna said.
Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez said he had no objection to
gas from the Kapok/Dorado field being used in this
country for a specific period, since there was already
infrastructure in place in T&T. At stake is
ten trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in two of the
three blocks which, it is believed, are shared by
the two countries.
De
Osuna told the Guardian there was political will
on both sides to come to an agreement.
The
technical working group had completed its work,
and sources in Venezuela said the Loran/Manatee
field had five tcf of gas with the distribution
being 73 per cent on the Venezuela side and 27 per
cent on the Trinidad side.
De
Osuna indicated the Loran/Manatee field would be
the first one unitised but that would be closely
followed by the Kapok/Dorado field, in which 3.5
of the five tcf of gas (70 per cent) is believed
to be on the T&T side.
Venezuela’s
national oil company Pdvsa and bpTT recently exchanged
data on the fields, and when that working group
is finished then a unitisation agreement will be
pursued.
The
Trinidad Guardian
Tuesday 17th October, 2006
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©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
. All Rights Reserved.
