*Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister Stuart Young has announced that the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) has revoked licences granted to British multinational oil firms Shell and BP, and Trinidad’s state-owned Natural Gas Company (NGC) for the development of two offshore natural gas projects between Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela – Dragon (developed by Shell and NGC) and Cocuina-Manakin (a development by BP and NGC). Under the previous US government led by former president Joe Biden (2021-2025), Ofac had granted special licences to the companies, allowing them to operate despite US sanctions against Venezuela. However yesterday Young said that these had been revoked, with the companies given a 27 May deadline to wind down activities. In December 2023 NGC announced the signing of the licence relating to the Dragon field between NGC, Shell, and Venezuela’s oil ministry while in July 2024 it announced the signing of the licence with BP relating to the Cocuina-Manakin gas fields. Young said yesterday that the government would appeal the decision, which follows recent similar measures taken by the current US administration led by President Donald Trump against other oil companies operating in Venezuela such as US oil firm Chevron.
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