Venezuela has suspended its energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago. The country's President, Nicolas Maduro, said this in a televised speech on Monday, according to the news agency Reuters.
The previous government of Trinidad and Tobago had planned several joint natural gas projects with the government of Venezuela. In the speech, Maduro said that a proposal for the suspension from Venezuela's oil ministry and the board of directors of state oil company PDVSA had landed on his desk.
- I have approved the proposal, says Maduro.
The message from Maduro comes after the president on Sunday sharply criticized the arrival of the US warship USS "Gravely" in Trinidad and Tobago, which lies off the coast of Venezuela. The ship arrived in connection with joint military exercises between the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.
In the speech on Monday, Maduro criticized what he describes as a pro-American stance by Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. He also accuses Persad-Bissessar of turning his country into what Maduro calls an aircraft carrier for the US empire against Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago's gas reserves are dwindling and the island state's gas production is declining. This prompted former Trinidadian Prime Minister Keith Rowly to sign a deal to extract natural gas in Venezuelan waters near Trinidad and Tobago.
Shell and the state-owned Trinidadian energy company NGC received a renewed US license for the project earlier in October, Reuters reports.
Persad-Bissessar, who took office as prime minister on May 1, told the Trinidad and Tobago News newspaper that the island state does not need Venezuelan gas.
- We have our own plans to grow our economy, both within and outside the energy sector, she told the newspaper, according to Reuters.
/ritzau/
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