October 08, 2025
(Bloomberg) – Shell Plc is preparing to resume preliminary work on a Venezuelan offshore gas field to supply neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, as its confidence grows that the Trump administration will issue a new license exempting the project from sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter.
The project to develop the Dragon gas field, located in shallow waters between the two countries, would replenish feedstock for Trinidad’s gas-starved liquefaction complex and petrochemical plants. Trinidad is a significant exporter of LNG, ammonia and other gas-based products.
The imminent license for Shell emphasizes the administration’s divided approach toward Venezuela. On one side, U.S. warships arrayed off Venezuela’s coast and U.S. military jets bombing alleged drug-running boats. On the other, oil company executives and Trinidadian officials shuttling between Washington, Caracas and Port of Spain to try to get gas plans back on track.
The White House revoked oil and gas licenses in Venezuela in April to try to escalate pressure on Venezuela, which the Trump administration views as a haven for drug cartels. Dragon is one of several offshore gas projects that Venezuela and Trinidad were working to develop before the Trump administration reversed course.
In July, the administration issued a restricted license to Chevron Corp. to resume production and exports of Venezuelan heavy oil, and is expected to follow suit with Shell and other companies tied to gas projects that would benefit Trinidad, according to the people.
The Treasury Department, which administers licenses through the Office of Foreign Assets Control, didn’t reply to a request for comment.
The final terms of Shell’s license are still under discussion, according to people familiar with the status of the talks. Shell wants the new license to have a duration of up to 10 years compared with the original short-term license to facilitate long-term investment, according to the people.
Shell’s partner in the project is Trinidad’s state-owned National Gas Co.
In parallel to the Shell talks, bp Plc is seeking to restore its own license to develop the Venezuelan side of the Manakin-Cocuina gas field that straddles the maritime border between the two countries.
Shell referred queries to Trinidad’s government. bp didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shell and bp are the main shareholders in the Atlantic liquefaction complex in Trinidad, where gas production has been declining for more than a decade. The gas shortage has dented Trinidad’s exports of LNG and petrochemicals, including ammonia that’s used by US farmers.
The Dragon field lies only a few miles from Shell’s Hibiscus platform off Trinidad’s coast.
The Trump administration is seen as willing to allow oil companies to resume work in Venezuela if they don’t pay taxes and royalties to the Venezuelan government in hard currency, the people said.
In a Sept. 30 meeting with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed renewed U.S. support for Trinidad to access Dragon, so long as there are “steps to ensure it will not provide significant benefit to the Maduro regime,” according to a State Department statement.
Persad-Bissessar has been a vocal supporter of the US boat strikes in recent weeks.
In late 2023, Venezuela’s oil ministry granted Shell and NGC a 30-year production-sharing contract for Dragon, which holds more than 4 trillion cubic feet of reserves. The companies had hammered out initial terms in 2018 before the first Trump administration imposed oil sanctions on Caracas in January 2019 in an effort to dislodge Nicolás Maduro, who has ruled the country since 2013.
Venezuela’s information and oil ministries didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
