En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young yes­ter­day met with two of the key stake­hold­ers in­volved in the prospec­tive Drag­on Gas deal as he pre­pares to re­turn to Venezuela in a cou­ple weeks to con­tin­ue ne­go­ti­a­tions.

A re­lease from the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny yes­ter­day stat­ed that Young at­tend­ed a spe­cial NGC Board meet­ing at the com­pa­ny’s head of­fice in Point Lisas.

“Min­is­ter Young was in­vit­ed to at­tend this spe­cial board meet­ing, which was con­vened to fa­cil­i­tate on­go­ing strate­gic dis­cus­sions with key in­dus­try stake­hold­ers around op­por­tu­ni­ties for strength­en­ing na­tion­al en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, af­ford­abil­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty,” the re­lease stat­ed.

The vis­it was the Young’s first since he as­sumed of­fice in 2021.

“At the meet­ing, Min­is­ter Young and the NGC Board heard sep­a­rate pre­sen­ta­tions from Shell T&T se­nior vice pres­i­dent and coun­try chair, Eu­gene Okpere and the pres­i­dent of bp T&T (bpTT) David Camp­bell, who were in­vit­ed to share up­dates from their re­spec­tive com­pa­nies,” it stat­ed.

NGC and Shell are two of the key stake­hold­ers for this coun­try with re­spect to the Drag­on Gas deal.

The re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day did not say whether the Drag­on Gas deal had been dis­cussed.

Young is ex­pect­ed to re­turn to Cara­cas, Venezuela, in a few weeks to con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions on the Drag­on Gas Field deal.

He has so far vis­it­ed Cara­cas twice as part of the on­go­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions.

Speak­ing at the post-Cab­i­net press brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre last week, Young said a del­e­ga­tion of ex­perts will ac­com­pa­ny him to con­tin­ue those dis­cus­sions.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced on Jan­u­ary 24 that the Unit­ed States had waived en­er­gy sanc­tions against Venezuela via an Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC) waiv­er, paving the way for T&T to de­vel­op the PDVSA-owned Drag­on Gas Field.

With re­spect to yes­ter­day’s meet­ing with Young, NGC pres­i­dent Mark Lo­quan ex­pressed his sat­is­fac­tion with the out­comes of the meet­ing.

“NGC has been work­ing close­ly with the Gov­ern­ment and key in­dus­try stake­hold­ers across the en­er­gy val­ue chain over the past few years to build a stronger, green­er, with greater align­ment and un­der­stand­ing of the chal­lenges ahead. In that con­text, NGC’s man­age­ment and board wel­comed Min­is­ter Young’s in­put, per­spec­tives and guid­ance.”

Min­is­ter Young re­flect­ed pos­i­tive­ly on his first vis­it to NGC.

“It is heart­en­ing to see NGC tak­ing the ini­tia­tive to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties such as these that en­cour­age open shar­ing, knowl­edge trans­fer and above all, con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tions about the present and fu­ture of our in­dus­try.”