Venezuela Cancels Energy Ties With Trinidad and Tobago After U.S. Warship Visit

Venezuela has called for the cancellation of energy agreements with neighboring island nation Trinidad and Tobago after the latter agreed to host a U.S. warship for joint exercises.

Per the AP, Venezuela’s vice president called Trinidad and Tobago’s actions “hostile”, in the context of the United States’ attacks on boats that Washington says are used to carry drugs into the U.S.

“The prime minister of Trinidad has decided to join the war-mongering agenda of the United States,” Delcy Rodrigues, who is also minister of oil and gas in the Caracas government, said.

The agreements that Rodrigues referred to date back to 2015 and concern joint exploration for natural gas in the waters between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago. The president of the island nation has become the only regional leader in Latin America and the Caribbean to welcome President Trump’s so-called gunboat diplomacy.

The U.S. president earlier this year stepped up his rhetoric against Venezuela’s government, saying both President Nicolas Maduro and senior members of his cabinet were involved in drug trafficking. Trump also put a higher bounty on Maduro’s head, at $50 million, and ordered boats coming from Venezuela—allegedly with drugs on board—to be destroyed.

Meanwhile, reports appeared in U.S. media saying Maduro had offered Trump access to Venezuela’s natural resource wealth to avoid a further escalation. Maduro had reportedly offered the Trump Administration to open all Venezuelan oil and gold projects to U.S. companies, the New York Times reported earlier this month. The government in Venezuela was also ready to offer preferential contracts to American firms, redirect Venezuela’s oil exports from China to the U.S., and reduce energy and mining deals with companies from Iran, China, and Russia, the report said. Another followed up with the statement that Trump had declined the offer.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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