En­er­gy pol­i­cy, geopol­i­tics and in­dus­tri­al up­heaval con­verged in 2025 to re­de­fine T&T’s eco­nom­ic land­scape. The year un­fold­ed as a study in con­trasts: ma­jor up­stream progress at home, a re­newed vote of con­fi­dence from a glob­al oil ma­jor, and, at the same time, the col­lapse of care­ful­ly ne­go­ti­at­ed cross-bor­der gas arrange­ments and the ex­it of a long-stand­ing petro­chem­i­cal pro­duc­er. To­geth­er, these de­vel­op­ments un­der­scored both the re­silience and fragili­ty of an econ­o­my still an­chored in nat­ur­al gas.

The most desta­bil­is­ing de­vel­op­ment of the year came with the Unit­ed States’ de­ci­sion to re­voke Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC) li­cences that had en­abled T&T to pur­sue gas de­vel­op­ments with­in Venezue­lan wa­ters.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young an­nounced that Wash­ing­ton had re­voked the li­cences cov­er­ing the Drag­on and Cocuina-Man­akin gas fields on April 8. The Cocuina-Man­akin li­cence was grant­ed on May 31, 2024, and was valid un­til May 31, 2026. The re­vised Drag­on li­cence was is­sued on Oc­to­ber 17, 2023, with an ex­piry date of Oc­to­ber 31, 2025.