Venezuela, Trinidad strained relations continue:

It may not be too obvious to a lot of people about a lukewarm relationship that has developed between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, the two countries separated by only ten miles of water between them.
The issues that are causing the strained relations between the neighbouring states are two-pronged.
First is the refusal of Port of Spain to join President Hugo Chavez’s Petrocaribe initiative and the second has to do with the gas that lies on the Trinidad side of the maritime border which Venezuela – although getting the lion’s share of resources – wants it to be channeled into Caracas for their domestic use.
Both governments are not seeing eye to eye on the two issues and as such have kept their distance from each other.
Lately, there have been calls for Trinidad and Tobago -even from Mr. Chavez-  to join the Petrocaribe initiative.
At the just concluded fourth summit on Petrocaribe in Cuba, Mr. Chavez told his audience including heads of state from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) who have signed on to the Petrocaribe deal, that he wants Trinidad and Tobago to be fully involved in the initiative.
As an indication of good gesture, he invited officials from the twin-island state to attend the meeting as observers.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning was not directly invited and did not attend but the country’s Ambassador to Caracas was present at the summit.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer also called on Trinidad and Tobago, both a producer of oil and gas, to play a significant role in the Petrocaribe initiative as the country had a major role to play in the broader context of regional energy security.
So examining the first issue, it is impossible for Trinidad and Tobago join the Petrocaribe deal at this time.
Hinged to the Petrocaribe accord is the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a new regional economic integration body being promoted by Mr. Chavez as an alternative to the FTAA which continues to be at a standstill because of protracted talks among some members particularly Brazil and the US.
Trinidadian energy minister Conrad Enill pointed out last week that his country cannot join Venezuela’s Petrocaribe at this time because of conflict with the FTAA.
Trinidad and Tobago will host the fifth Summit of the Americas next year and the twin-island state has also received the support from all of its CARICOM partners and several countries in Latin America as the site for the FTAA headquarters even though the FTAA might be dead in the water.
So for these reasons Trinidad and Tobago cannot join the Petrocaribe deal at this time
Even though Trinidad and Tobago’s traditional petroleum markets in the Caribbean have been eroded because other Caricom partners -with the exception of Barbados — are getting petroleum under Petrocaribe, the southern Caribbean state has not shown any hostility towards any of the regional countries that are benefiting from the deal.
Neither did Trinidad and Tobago raise questions about the legality of the Petrocaribe oil deal between Caracas and the large majority of Caricom member states and about a possible violation of the 1973 CARICOM Treaty since it has put the twin-island state at a major disadvantage.
In fact, Trinidad and Tobago went so far as helping to facilitate the Petrocaribe arrangement with the Caricom states by voluntarily removing the Common External Tariff (CET) protection on its petroleum refinery.
By giving up the CET, Venezuela will not incur tariff or additional costs when they supply oil to CARICOM members under the Petrocaribe arrangement.
On the second issue, Port of Spain is still awaiting a very important but long overdue visit by Mr Chavez to consummate the cross border arrangement which would free up hydrocarbon resources for exploitation.
In early 2007, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela signed a framework unitisation agreement on the energy blocks straddling their border.
But the gas – estimated at 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) – cannot be produced without agreement of both sides on the issue monetisation or the actual exploitation of the reserves in the Manatee and Loran discoveries in Trinidad and Venezuela, respectively.
It was agreed by technical teams from the two countries that 73% (7.3 Tcf) of the reservoir lies on the Venezuelan side of the border with the remaining 27% (2.7 Tcf) on the Trinidad and Tobago side of the border.
Trinidad desperately needs the gas because of its vastly expanding petrochemical industries and for an LNG Train X which would supply high energy consumer Jamaica with natural gas.
During their March 2007 meeting, Mr. Manning presented a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding to the Venezuelan government for collaboration between the two countries in energy development.
This would include a collaboration on the LNG Train X whereby some of Venezuelan gas will be processed in Trinidad since the transportation of gas will be easier as a 56-inch pipeline from Trinidad is designed to take another 800 million cubic feet of gas.
Mr. Manning also suggested that the two countries collaborate on building a new oil refinery in Trinidad, capable of processing 250,000 barrels of crude per day.
The idea was for the Venezuelan government to study the proposal and for Mr. Chavez to visit Trinidad in the following month to decide whether it wants to collaborate or go alone with their own plans.
During that meeting,Venezuela?s state-run energy company, PDVSA however presented a map to the Venezuelan President showing a pipeline from Manatee ? a 400-km pipeline from Manatee to the Paria Peninsula, arguing that the gas is needed in Venezuela for LNG production they were developing in the Mariscal Sucre project.
According to Mr Manning, Venezuela completed ignored the fact that just to the north of the Paria Peninsula has some significant gas in their waters.
In any case, despite Caracas plans to become a net exporter of natural gas in 2007, is has been lagging behind with its US$2.7 billion LNG export plant in Giria, from which gas from the Mariscal Sucre project and the Deltana Platform would feed to produce 4.7 million tonnes of LNG annually.
It should also be remembered that during a 2003 official visit to Trinidad President Chavez said he hoped gas from the Plataforma Deltana, located close to Trinidad will be processed in Port of Spain for export markets since the South American country does not yet have an LNG plant.
So Trinidad continues to wait for Mr. Chavez who has been making his trek all over the Caribbean, to decide on the proposal and however they turn out, for both countries to move along with their plans, individually or collectively.
In the meantime, precious hydrocarbon resources remain in the ground and as Prime Minister Manning said recently if the gas resources are not exploited under the unitisation arrangement, it won’t be produced for a very long time to come.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most urgent issue at this point is really how to bring Mr. Manning and Mr. Chavez together. This should be the first step towards rebuilding of relations between the two countries.