The deal is important to both countries due to the planned development of the Deltana Platform, which contains an estimated 38tn cubic feet of gas. The five blocks to be explored are partly in or next to Trinidadian waters.
Chávez agreed that the findings would be sent to Trinidad & Tobago to be processed as LNG and exported to the US. Trinidad, with approximately 19.7tn cubic feet of natural gas reserves, is the world's fifth-largest LNG producer and the largest LNG exporter to the US.
Venezuela, which sits on about 148tn cubic feet of proven gas reserves (expected to increase to more than 440tn cubic feet following new discoveries), is in the process of constructing an LNG plant that would produce 4.7m tonnes a year of gas for export, but this will not be completed until at least 2007.
Chávez also expressed interest in becoming a partner with Trinidad in the construction of a proposed US$500m undersea pipeline to transport gas to the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, with branches extending to Antigua, Barbados, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic (RC-02-07). The pipeline is currently the subject of a feasibility study.
Manning also mooted the idea of the pipeline running as far north as Florida. Venezuela's energy and mines minister, Rafael Ramírez, said that the country would be willing to participate in the construction of the pipeline and even make its own natural gas available.
The daily paper Trinidad Express has rumoured that Chávez is working on persuading Manning to extend the pipeline to include Cuba. This would add a serious geopolitical angle to the project. While Trinidad maintains good relations with Cuba, the US is unlikely to countenance the construction of a pipeline that links it to Cuba.
The Trinidad pipeline is the fourth proposal to supply LNG to Florida for power generation. There are three competing projects -AES and El Paso of the US and Tractebel of Belgium - to pipe LNG from the Bahamas to the Florida coast (see RC-03-04). These plans have run into heavy opposition from environmentalists.
Florida's utilities plan to construct more than 11,000 megawatts in new gas-fired power generation facilities by the end of 2005. This demand would require more than two billion cubic feet per day of additional gas supplies.
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