Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young be­lieves Op­po­si­tion MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal is “grasp­ing at straws” when he ques­tioned if Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicholas Maduro in­struct­ed Young to with­hold the names of the of­fi­cials he met with in Venezuela be­tween 2022 and 2024.

Speak­ing at a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Pave­ment re­port in Debe on Tues­day evening, Mooni­lal said at long last he re­ceived a re­sponse from Young to a ques­tion filed through the Par­lia­ment in Sep­tem­ber 2024 ask­ing for de­tails as it per­tained to Young’s trav­els to Venezuela dur­ing the pe­ri­od April 2021 to Ju­ly 2024.

The ques­tion asked for, a) the num­ber of oc­ca­sions on which the Min­is­ter has trav­elled to that coun­try; b) the of­fi­cial agen­da of each meet­ing held; c) a list of all the of­fi­cials in at­ten­dance at each meet­ing; and d) cost of trav­el, ac­com­mo­da­tion and oth­er ex­pens­es to the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go for the Min­is­ter’s at­ten­dance at each meet­ing?

In De­cem­ber 2024, House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George for­mal­ly re­quest­ed En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young ex­plain the de­lay in an­swer­ing the ques­tion.

The writ­ten re­sponse, how­ev­er, on­ly cov­ered the pe­ri­od Au­gust 2022 and June 2024, de­tail­ing 13 trips made dur­ing this time.

But Mooni­lal was not sat­is­fied with the writ­ten an­swer say­ing it did not con­tain who Young met with in the South Amer­i­can na­tion.

“Tonight, I ask you, Stu­art Young, to tell us, is it that he is pro­hib­it­ed by the Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela from nam­ing any­one he meets in Venezuela? Did Maduro tell him that he can­not dis­close the names of any Venezue­lan of­fi­cials that he meets in Venezuela?” Mooni­lal asked.

Mooni­lal al­so ex­pressed shock over the cost of these trips. Mooni­lal said those 13 trips amount­ed to al­most $1.2 mil­lion.

Look­ing at the cost break­down, Mooni­lal said, “This one is nice, No­vem­ber 2-4, 2023, that is one day, so you trav­el on the 2nd and re­turn on the 4th , they car­ry Per­ma­nent Sec­re­taries as well I think, $137,000 to spend a day in Venezuela. What is this man do­ing in Venezeu­la?”

How­ev­er, in re­sponse, Min­is­ter Young told Guardian Me­dia, “Un­sur­pris­ing­ly Mr Mooni­lal is grasp­ing at straws. Very of­ten on these of­fi­cial vis­its to Venezuela, the gov­ern­ment of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela is­sued con­tem­po­ra­ne­ous me­dia re­leas­es of my meet­ings.”

Young said his of­fi­cial vis­its to Venezuela were for the ben­e­fit of this coun­try.

“The re­sults and de­liv­er­ies of these trips are the ex­plo­ration and pro­duc­tion li­cences that Trinidad and To­ba­go, Shell and BP have ex­e­cut­ed with the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela. A 30-year li­cence to ex­plore, pro­duce and ex­port gas from the Drag­on field to Trinidad and To­ba­go and a twen­ty-year li­cence to ex­plore, pro­duce and ex­port gas from the Cocuina field to Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he ex­plained.

The En­er­gy Min­is­ter added, “These two deals of­fer the op­por­tu­ni­ty for Trinidad and To­ba­go to con­tin­ue be­ing a ma­jor LNG pro­duc­er, as well as, a ma­jor glob­al top two ex­porter of am­mo­nia and methanol. Both of these li­cences, as well as the dis­cus­sions that I pur­sued and con­tin­ue to pur­sue for more projects, will ben­e­fit the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Mooni­lal said he is con­sid­er­ing fil­ing a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­quest for ad­di­tion­al de­tails.