Reuters has reported that the government of Trinidad and Tobago has begun talks with the U.S., for a license that would allow the joint development of a natural gas project shared with Venezuela, that also involves bp, Energy Minister Stuart Young said on Thursday.

"The government of Trinidad and Tobago is dealing with the government of Venezuela, and bringing BP along, as we did with Shell. So there is a precedent, a template for getting it done. And we have seen very, very fast progress and very productive progress," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston.

Reuters also reported that Minister Stuart Young said he hopes Washington will grant the license for Manakin-Cocuina this year, similar to a 2023 authorization it extended to the Dragon gas project in Venezuela, which is being planned by Shell and Trinidad's National Gas Company.

Last week, a delegation led by the Trinidad & Tobago Minister of Energy, Honourable Stuart Young, and joined by representatives from bp, visited Venezuela to discuss the development of cross border gas fields.

The delegations met in Caracas to commence engagement, discussions and negotiations related to the cross border Manakin-Cocuina field. The presentations and discussions including the exchange of technical information and negotiation of legal terms and conditions, were aimed at advancing the development of the gas field.

bp confirmed in a statement that it is in discussions with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on the potential development of gas resources in the Manakin-Cocuina field.

The Manakin block was discovered in 1998 and is a cross border reservoir field within the Venezuelan reservoir, Cocuina. The Manakin field, on the T&T side of the boundary, is already licensed to bpTT (block 5b). Manakin was declared commercial in January 2018. All activities by bp, relating to the development of the Manakin-Cocuina field came to a halt in 2019 due to the US-imposed sanctions.

During Minister Young’s visit to Houston for the CERAWeek conference, he met with several key stakeholders in the energy landscape, including Geoffrey R. Pyatt, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Energy Resources, US Department of State, Cristina Lobillo-Borrero, Director, Energy Platform Task Force, Directorate-General of Energy, European Commission, EU. He also met with Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, Meg O’Neill, CEO of Woodside and Adnan Zainol Abdin, COO, PETRONAS and EVP and CEO Gas Business at PETRONAS.