📊 Port of Spain wants certainty, not surprises
Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Minister, Roodal Moonilal, sought to reassure the public: the authorizations allowing Venezuelan gas to be developed would remain in place even if the political landscape in Washington shifts after the midterm elections. Two names are key: Dragon and Loran. The former, located in Venezuelan waters near the island, is estimated to hold around 4.2 trillion cubic feet of gas—enough to supply much of Trinidad’s liquefied natural gas and petrochemical industries.
Port of Spain’s agenda is concrete and has three pillars: securing gas supplies, reviving its Guaracara refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, and attracting capital back to the fertilizer industry. Technical teams are expected to travel to Venezuela to tie up loose ends and, according to the minister, the plan is to sign with the energy ministers of both countries before the end of November. In parallel, work is underway on the Loran measurement and accounting agreement, a requirement the license stipulates must be met within fairly strict deadlines.
📈 The fine print that defines everything: OFAC
Beyond the diplomatic rhetoric, what underpins the project are the specific authorizations issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which cover the National Gas Company of Trinidad (NGC) and international partners such as Shell. And here, precision matters: a specific license is not a blank check. It has a limited scope, expiration dates, reporting obligations, and can be rewritten if the regulatory mood in Washington changes.
That is why the Trinidadian team insists that its timeline does not depend on the election outcome: what is at stake is the operational continuity of a business that takes years to mature and cannot afford six-month pauses. Recent history has already shown how fragile it can be: in late 2025, Venezuela announced the end of gas supply deals with Trinidad amid diplomatic tensions, and then the pendulum swung back toward cooperation. That back-and-forth is the main investment risk.
🔎 From gas pipeline to P2P market: the transmission channel
What does all this have to do with the day-to-day life of someone exchanging USDT for bolivars? More than it seems, although the effect is slow. Every real advance in Dragon and Loran involves foreign-currency disbursements, local purchases of services, hiring technical staff, and cross-border payments. Over time, that flow translates into a greater supply of dollars in the formal economy and less pressure on the parallel exchange rate.
The transmission is neither immediate nor automatic. But Venezuela’s P2P market is, above all, a market driven by expectations. When a sign of sustained foreign investment appears, USDT spreads tend to narrow because traders anticipate greater foreign-currency availability; when uncertainty prevails—a license in jeopardy, an announcement of a break—the stablecoin premium swells and the bolívar loses ground faster.
💰 USDT as infrastructure, not just a safe haven
There is a second, less-discussed channel: oil and gas services companies often operate in environments where correspondent banking is scarce. For them, USDT has ceased to be a speculative asset and has become a payment rail: they pay contractors, advance purchases of spare parts, and cover travel expenses for technical teams. If energy cooperation takes hold, this transactional use will grow in volume and depth, which in turn improves liquidity for USDT/VES pairs on local platforms.
🛡️ Digital banking: the opportunity and the compliance filter
The other front is banking. A country receiving energy investment needs banks capable of moving money smoothly, and that requires robust anti-money laundering compliance, traceable funds, and sound correspondent banking relationships. Venezuela’s digital banking sector has an opening here: if it can document the source of funds in transactions linked to the energy sector, it can capture a niche of corporate clients who currently handle everything outside the system.
The risk is always the same: commercial appetite may clash with the foreign regulatory filter, with caution ultimately prevailing. That is why license announcements matter so much, even to someone who will never touch a drill.
⚠️ What to watch in the coming weeks
📖 Read the full article: https://pitbullchain.com/noticias/gas-de-dragon-y-loran-lo-que-el-acuerdo-con-trinidad-mueve-en-el-p2p-036448
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