Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela delayed the signing of a natural gas supply deal because of a strong earthquake that hit late yesterday.
The agreement for Venezuela to deliver offshore gas to Trinidad was scheduled to be signed today in Port-of-Spain, but the event has been moved to Caracas on 25 August, Trinidad's communications ministry said today.
"This change was made due to the concerns about the earthquake," the ministry said.
The agreement will be signed by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PdV, Trinidad's state-owned gas company NGC and European major Shell. The project is scheduled to start delivering 150mn cf/d in 2020 and eventually reaching 300mn cf/d.
The gas from the Dragon field will be delivered through a planned 17km flowline across the maritime border to Shell's existing Hibiscus platform off northwestern Trinidad, from where it would be tied into NGC´s distribution network.
Venezuela's political opposition says that the gas deal is illegal and unconstitutional because it has not been approved by the National Assembly, a legislative body that the government replaced with a rubber-stamp National Constituent Assembly in 2017. Critics say the supply deal deprives local industries in Venezuela and pledged to disavow it under a new government.
Oil, LNG, fertilizer and petrochemical companies in Trinidad are currently examining the integrity of their infrastructure following the earthquake that clocked in at 7.3-magnitude off Venezuela's Paria Peninsula, according to the US Geological Service.
Venezuelan authorities have reported no serious damage, but faulty communications and power supply in the Opec country make a thorough assessment challenging.
Neither PdV nor Shell has commented on the signing of the gas agreement.
