(Welligence, 19.Oct.2023) — Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) has received approval from the US government to pay PDVSA, the Venezuelan NOC, in cash for gas from Venezuela. The decision comes after a series of negotiations between all three countries, and is a vital step towards bringing Train 1 at Atlantic LNG (ALNG) back online, which has been shut down since November 2020 due to a lack of feedgas.
Since then, efforts have been made to prop up ALNG through the entity’s restructuring and improved fiscal terms for upstream projects. However, Venezuela’s commitment to the US government’s stipulations for full sanctions relief remains to be seen. Joint development of T&T’s and Venezuela’s gas resource would be enough to keep ALNG going, but more is needed from Venezuela to ease investors’ concerns about the viability of a working relationship in the long-term.
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