The United States has allowed Shell and Trinidad and Tobago to resume collaboration with Venezuela on a key offshore gas project led by Shell, after revoking its permit earlier in 2025. Development of the Dragon gas field, located along the maritime border between Trinidad and Venezuela, by Trinidad’s National Gas Company (NGC) had been on hold since 2019 due to sweeping US sanctions that barred foreign companies from doing business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA.
The new authorisation, issued by the US Treasury Department, is structured in three stages. The first stage permits Trinidad and Shell to negotiate the project with Venezuela and PDVSA through April 2026 but makes it mandatory to include US companies in the development phase.
The Dragon field, estimated to hold over 4 Tcf (nearly 120 bcm) of natural gas reserves, is seen as strategic for Trinidad and Tobago’s energy security. Shell had initially planned to begin gas production by 2026 or 2027, primarily to supply Atlantic LNG, one of Trinidad’s main LNG producers. In April 2025, the US had revoked licenses related to Shell’s and BP’s gas projects with NGC in Venezuelan waters.
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