Energy and transition economics
2026-04-26
10 minute read
16 sources
Trinidad and Venezuela 2026: the Dragon license, Atlantic LNG idle trains, and Caribbean gas arbitrage
Atlantic LNG runs at 9.0 mtpa against 14.8 mtpa nameplate, Train 1 has been idle since end 2020, and the four cross border fields with Venezuela are the only unsanctioned upside. The Dragon, Cocuina, and Manakin Cocuina licenses, OFAC General License 41 and 41A, and the disputed July 2024 Maduro reelection together set the gas balance for the eastern Caribbean through 2028.
Trinidad and Tobago's gas economy is contracting in slow motion. Marketed gas production peaked near 4.0 billion cubic feet per day in 2010 and ran at 2.55 Bcf/d in 2024, a 36 percent drawdown that has stranded one of the four Atlantic LNG trains since end 2020 and capped national LNG output at 9.0 million tonnes per annum against a 14.8 ...