TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Manning prepares for talks with Chavez
Prime Minister Patrick Manning will meet Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in Port of Spain on Friday to discuss joint energy cooperation and to address the mounting problem of drug and arms trafficking between the two countries.
Chávez will be accompanied by foreign minister Roy Chaderton, top executives from state oil company PDVSA and energy and mines minister Rafael Ramírez. Chávez is expected to push for natural gas agreements. 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 has an estimated 148tn cubic feet of natural gas reserves, but it is only now developing an LNG industry.
Trinidad has forged much closer relations with Venezuela over the course of the last year, seeking to pool resources and reaching an energy cooperation agreement in March 2002. This included a logistical support accord between British Petroleum of Trinidad & Tobago (BPTT) and PDVSA and the possibility of joint offshore exploration.
Bilateral trade between the two countries was approximately US$400m in 2001, 88% of which were Venezuelan exports to Trinidad and Tobago. Venezuelan exports mainly consist of oil and gas and paper products.
Chávez is keen to improve relations with Venezuela's Caribbean neighbours in advance of hemispheric free-trade talks. Venezuela has set up oil facility programmes aimed at making energy supplies available to Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and Cuba. Earlier this week, Venezuela improved its frosty relationship with Guyana by drafting a new energy agreement.