US Nixes Venezuela-Trinidad Natural Gas Licenses as Maduro Declares Economic Emergency
Caracas, April 9, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Trump administration has withdrawn licenses allowing Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and multinational corporations to develop two offshore natural gas projects.
Trinidadian Prime Minister Stuart Young broke the news in a press conference on Tuesday. He called Washington’s decision “disappointing but not unexpected.” The Caribbean country’s National Gas Company (NGC), as well as foreign partners BP and Shell, reportedly have a May 27 deadline to wind-down dealings with Venezuela’s state energy company PDVSA.
Young added that he would seek “an audience” with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to defend projects seen as strategic for Trinidad and Tobago. He vowed that his government had “plans B, C and D” in place. Port of Spain is currently the largest Latin American exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
At the time of writing, Venezuelan authorities had not commented on the licenses’ removal.
The natural gas waiver cancellations follow a recent US escalation of economic sanctions against Venezuela. Oil giant Chevron, European companies Repsol, Eni and Maurel & Prom, alongside crude and asphalt importers, were all handed May 27 deadlines to wrap up their involvement with Venezuela’s energy sector.
The Trump administration likewise threatened “secondary tariffs” on imports from countries found to receive Venezuelan crude or gas exports.
The ramped-up measures have the White House returning to its “maximum pressure” campaign against Caracas, which has especially targeted the oil industry. Venezuela has been hit by financial sanctions, an export embargo, secondary sanctions and a bevy of other actions aimed at choking off the country’s most important revenue source.
Trinidad’s NGC had received the US Treasury Department’s greenlight to develop two offshore natural gas projects. The four-trillion cubic feet (tcf) Dragon field, fully located in Venezuelan waters, saw PDVSA grant NGC and Shell a 30-year license to extract gas.
In addition, the Cocuina-Manakin field, with 1 tcf worth of reserves split 34-66 between Venezuela and Trinidad, was to be developed by BP on a 20-year contract. In both projects, according to reports, PDVSA was excluded as a shareholder and was only due taxes and royalties.
The South American country has 200 tcf of certified natural gas reserves that are largely untapped. The Nicolás Maduro government has sought to attract investment, with Venezuela’s legal framework allowing more advantageous conditions for foreign corporations in natural gas projects as compared to oil.
The Cardón IV venture in western Venezuela is owned by Eni (Italy) and Repsol (Spain) with equal stakes. On Tuesday, Eni CEO stated that natural gas production, which supplies Venezuela’s domestic market, would continue, and that the company was in talks with US authorities to “find solutions” in order to receive payments from PDVSA.
Maduro signs ‘Economic Emergency’ decree
The Maduro government has vowed to resist ramped-up sanctions and tariff threats. On Tuesday, the Venezuelan president signed a decree granting the executive emergency powers to take economic measures. The 60-day mandate can be renewed and requires approval from the National Assembly and Supreme Court.
“With the international circumstances and a global trade war, the Economic Emergency Decree allows me to protect the productive sectors and ensure [economic] balance and recovery,” Maduro said in a televised broadcast.
The executive bill allows the government to temporarily suspend tax collection, implement extraordinary expenditures outside the budget, as well as take measures to promote private sector investment and foster national production.
“It is very important to open the gates to new investment sources,” the president argued. “Investors who bring their resources to Venezuela will get special treatment and become a powerful force for stability and growth in the coming years.”
The Venezuelan leader had invoked similar emergency faculties in 2016 and 2021.
After seven straight years of recession, the Caribbean nation has experienced GDP growth since 2021, though its economy remains at around 30 percent of its size in 2014. A more liberal policy approach from the Maduro government also saw inflation reach 12-year lows at the end of 2024.
However, recent foreign exchange instability has triggered uncertainty and renewed inflation, with a skyrocketing parallel that stood as high as 50 percent above the official bolívar-USD exchange rate in recent days. The opposition-funded Venezuelan Finance Observatory reported double-digit monthly inflation rates in the first three months of 2025.
Edited by Cira Pascual Marquina in Caracas.
