{"id":840365,"date":"2025-04-10T18:11:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T23:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/10\/dragon-warning-local-news-trinidadexpress-com\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T18:11:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T23:11:53","slug":"dragon-warning-local-news-trinidadexpress-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/10\/dragon-warning-local-news-trinidadexpress-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon warning | Local News | trinidadexpress.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has warned that this country\u2019s \u201ccoo coo\u201d will be cooked\u201d if the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela goes sour.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister yesterday expressed confidence that Trinidad and Tobago was on solid footing with respect to its agreements, but cautioned that there could be a \u201ccalamity\u201d in terms of paying the nation\u2019s bills if the United States revokes the licence approved for the Dragon gas deal or if Venezuela decides not to allow Trinidad and Tobago to access the gas.<\/p>\n

Rowley was speaking at the official commemoration ceremony marking the \u201cpractical completion\u201d of construction of the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) Central Block yesterday.<\/p>\n

He explained that hospitals, schools and the country\u2019s expenses required revenue to be maintained.<\/p>\n

Rowley referenced a newspaper report in which an Opposition member claimed that the Dragon gas project had failed.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that when one attends a game, they cheer for their team to win, not to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I am asking the rest of you to send your telepathic power to overcome this negative nonsense about the failure of the Dragon deal. Because what we have been able to accomplish there, if I may say so myself, is a marvellous surprise to many people, because our gas within our borders is running out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rowley warned that the country would face future problems without energy deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cLadies and gentlemen, we take too much for granted in this country. That is why we could have people in this country wanting to celebrate the failure of the Dragon deal. But I can tell you, they wouldn\u2019t have any problem. They stashed away enough, so you who haven\u2019t stashed away anything\u2014it is your condition that they are laughing at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said securing Venezuela\u2019s agreement to allow Trinidad and Tobago to obtain a licence to extract gas from a proven Venezuelan gas field was something the country should celebrate.<\/p>\n

This was achieved at a time when geopolitics were such that the United States and other countries were setting new parameters and new terms of trade, the Prime Minister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sanctions by one country against another country could have the effect of destroying our economy. We\u2019re not involved in it, but it can destroy everything that we represent and that we hoped for,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Rowley stated that it required strong leadership to navigate such challenges and that securing a licence from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amid US sanctions against Venezuela was a significant achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe simply have to have a commitment and earn the respect of those we do business with to ensure that we move from talk to walking the outcome, because the future of our country depends on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see us losing that OFAC licence, as you will see in the news if that happens, then you know that your coo coo is cooked. If you see the Venezuelans not allowing us to use the Dragon field, then you know that we are in difficulty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said there were fields shared now between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, and his Government had been able to secure Venezuela\u2019s agreement to allow Trinidad and Tobago to extract its portion.<\/p>\n

He noted that this was already happening, with Shell currently extracting gas from the Manatee field.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you see in the news any of these things going south and sour, do not join other people and jump up to celebrate it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018What happens when gas runs out?\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Prime Minister questioned where Trinidad and Tobago would be today if these energy initiatives had not been accomplished.<\/p>\n

He also asked what would happen to Point Lisas, which the country depends on for a major revenue stream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens when the gas runs out? And it wouldn\u2019t run out in eight years, you know. It will be running out along the way until, by the eighth or ninth year, it\u2019s gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rowley warned that between now and then, the problem of insufficient gas supply would impact revenue, and the country would face challenges in paying its bills.<\/p>\n

He stated that in the national budget of $60 billion, approximately $6 billion was allocated to people who have no other source of income.<\/p>\n

Rowley said T&T was a country where people have become accustomed to the Government covering their bills through subsidies for water, electricity, medical care, and education\u2014services that will be affected if there is no sustainable revenue stream.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that while money could be obtained from the IMF, it would come with conditions\u2014including the removal of subsidies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has warned that this country\u2019s \u201ccoo coo\u201d will be cooked\u201d if the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela goes sour. The Prime Minister yesterday expressed confidence that Trinidad and Tobago was on solid footing with respect to its agreements, but cautioned that there could be a \u201ccalamity\u201d in terms of paying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":840366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4875,767],"tags":[11025,5411],"class_list":{"0":"post-840365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dragon","8":"category-warning","9":"tag-dragon","10":"tag-warning"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}