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The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, an econ­o­mist and an en­er­gy ex­pert call for ur­gent re­fo­cus on the econ­o­my, fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of the re­vo­ca­tion of the OFAC (Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol) spe­cial li­cences for the Drag­on and Cocuina fields be­ing re­voked by the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment.

On Tues­day, Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young said the gov­ern­ment would be ex­plor­ing le­gal op­tions with re­gard to re­vers­ing the de­ci­sion of the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment. “I have been in touch with our at­tor­neys at law in Wash­ing­ton, DC. There is a process for, I wouldn’t say ap­peal of this re­vo­ca­tion, but there is a process for you to make an ap­pli­ca­tion for it not to be (re­voked) or for there to be amend­ments and we are go­ing to be en­gaged in that process on be­half of our cit­i­zens,” Young said.

T&T was ini­tial­ly grant­ed an OFAC li­cence in Jan­u­ary 2023, which was amend­ed in Oc­to­ber 2023 to fa­cil­i­tate pay­ments in US dol­lars and was valid un­til Oc­to­ber 31, 2025. That amend­ed li­cence paved the way for the po­ten­tial ex­trac­tion of gas from Drag­on field in Venezue­lan wa­ters.