Venezuela has suspended large-scale gas trade with neighboring Trinidad and Tobago after the latter hosted US warships.
President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the “immediate suspension” of natural gas supply contracts to Trinidad and Tobago, state broadcaster Telesur reported on Monday.
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The island is home to one of several U.S. warships deployed near Venezuelan waters by President Donald Trump’s administration. Venezuelan officials have accused the US president of seeking regime change.
President Maduro canceled the gas deal and accused Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of turning the Caribbean nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela.”
Maduro claimed that Trinidad and Tobago had “run out of gas” before Venezuela agreed to support the deal.
Persado-Bissessar hit back, telling Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday newspaper that the country’s future “does not and does not depend on Venezuela.”
He added that the government was moving away from dependence on the long-delayed joint Dragon gas field in Venezuelan waters near Trinidad.
“The previous…governments mistakenly placed all their hopes in Project Dragon. We are not doing that,” Persad-Bissessar said.
She argued that this means the government is “less susceptible to intimidation from Venezuelans seeking political support.”
But she denied that tensions were rising between the two countries, which are separated by a small bay just 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide at its narrowest point.
“Illegal and immoral military threat”
The guided missile destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad’s capital, Port of Spain, on Sunday carrying U.S. Marines ahead of a scheduled joint military exercise.
Venezuelan authorities described Trinidad’s decision to call the ship as a provocation. The island nation’s government emphasized that joint exercises with the United States are held regularly.
Since September, the Trump administration has launched 10 attacks on vessels in the region suspected of carrying drugs, killing at least 43 people.
The Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships, one submarine, unmanned aircraft, and fighter jets to the Caribbean Sea, as well as one warship to the Gulf of Mexico.
The United States also announced the imminent arrival of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, which can carry up to 90 aircraft and attack helicopters.
Many Latin American and Caribbean leaders have likened the strikes to extrajudicial killings. But Persad-Bissessar supported the US campaign, saying he would “better see drug traffickers blown to smithereens” than have them kill their own people.
Venezuela claims the attack is aimed at allowing “external forces to seize Venezuela’s immense oil and gas wealth.”
Foreign Minister Iván Gil Pinto told the United Nations General Assembly on Monday that the United States “has an illegal and completely immoral military threat looming over our heads.”
Several government officials have accused the United States of using false claims of a war on drugs to prepare to overthrow Maduro’s government, which came under international condemnation last year for winning an election that was described as neither free nor fair.
Dragon and Manatee Gas Project
Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago first agreed to drill for gas together in 2018. However, the project has been significantly delayed and complicated by U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that the United States supports the Trinidad government’s Dragon gas proposal, but will take steps to ensure it does not significantly benefit the Maduro government.
The field license allows British multinational oil and gas company Shell and Trinidad’s state-owned gas company to develop the Dragon gas field off the coast of Venezuela, despite sanctions targeting the Maduro regime.
Shell is developing the Manatee gas project separately, which crosses the maritime border into Venezuela, but has received permission from the Maduro government to develop it independently on the Trinidad side. It was not immediately clear whether that project could also be at risk, according to Reuters.
The Dragon gas field is reported to contain 119 billion cubic meters (4.2 trillion cubic feet) of gas, a fossil fuel that contributes to climate change.
In 2021, the International Energy Agency warned that the launch of new oil and gas projects is incompatible with achieving climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Trinidad and Tobago relies on gas for 92.6 per cent of its energy needs, with the remaining 7.3 per cent met by petroleum products.
According to the IEA, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar provide 0.02% of the island nation’s energy, well below other countries in the region.
