by Pe­ter Christo­pher

Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has an­nounced that Trinidad and To­ba­go's li­cences grant­ed by the Unit­ed States' Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol, which would fa­cil­i­tate the ex­ploita­tion of gas fields in Venezue­lan wa­ters, have been re­voked.

Young made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing a press brief­ing at White Hall on Tues­day.

The Prime Min­is­ter said, "What I can tell Trinidad and To­ba­go, we have now been in­formed that our li­cence from OFAC, which is dat­ed the 18th of De­cem­ber, 2023 has been re­voked by OFAC, and that li­cense is now re­voked by OFAC, as well as our Cocuina-Man­akin li­cence."

Young said the gov­ern­ment would be ex­plor­ing le­gal op­tions with re­gard to re­vers­ing the de­ci­sion of the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment.

"I have been in touch with our at­tor­neys at law in Wash­ing­ton, DC, there is a process for, I wouldn't say ap­peal of this re­vo­ca­tion, but there is a process for you to make an ap­pli­ca­tion for it not to be (re­voked) or for there to be amend­ments and we are go­ing to be en­gaged in that process on be­half of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Trinidad and To­ba­go was grant­ed an OFAC li­cence on Oc­to­ber 31, 2023 paving the way for the po­ten­tial ex­trac­tion of gas from Drag­on field in Venezue­lan wa­ters. A sec­ond li­cence was grant­ed on May 31, 2024 for the Cocuina-Man­akin field.

Both li­cences were grant­ed for a pe­ri­od of two years.