US PLOT TO USE PORT OF SPAIN AGAINST CARACAS?
(first published on 2006/09/15)
by
Gerry Kangalee
by
Gerry Kangalee
It was organised by Caribbean Central American Action (CCAA) and the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Collaborating organisations included the US Department of Energy, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB).
The CCAA is a private organisation that promotes private sector-led economic development in the Caribbean Basin and throughout the Hemisphere. The organisation is very close to the US State Department and sponsors the (in) famous Miami Conferences on the Caribbean Basin.
The agenda dealt with topics of energy security; global energy challenges and their impact on Caribbean nations and industry; examination of the challenges of supplying reliable and affordable energy to Caribbean countries; oil pricing, taxation, transportation and fuel standards; energy efficiency; energy financing etc.
Attending the conference were: Karen Harbert - Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, US Department of Energy; Patrick Duddy - Deputy Assistant Secretary of State US State Department. There were government ministers, officials, bureaucrats, businessmen and academics from around the region, including Brasil, except from the most important oil producing country in the region – Venezuela, which is critical to the “energy security” of both the United States and the insular Caribbean. It may even become significant to the energy security of South America, what with Venezuela having the largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere.
The agenda was thunderous in its silence on Venezuela and its Petro Caribe initiative, but the undertone running throughout the conference could be nothing but Venezuela and Petro Caribe.
Imagine an energy conference held in T&T and the Venezuelans not invited? It’s unheard of! It reflects the deterioration of relations between the United States and Venezuela. The US is an implacable enemy of the Bolivarian Revolution; was involved in the anti-Chávez coup of 2002; refuses to extradite the arch-terrorist and murderer, Luis Posada; is twisting arms to try to keep Venezuela off the UN Security Council.
The United States is desperately intent on ensuring access to petroleum supplies to feed its voracious appetite for energy. In 2005 it consumed 20.7 million barrels of oil per day, of which 58% were net imports. The rest of the Western hemisphere consumed 8.2 million Venezuela exports 1.57 million barrels per day to the US, 14% of US imports, as much as it imports from Saudi Arabia or from Africa.
The US is involved in a global struggle with China for access to oil supplies. That struggle is sharpest in the Caspian basin and in Africa, where China, which the US considers its long term strategic enemy, matches the US in inducements to oil producing regimes.
This struggle is taking place against a background of slow down in the growth of petroleum reserves, a lack of spare capacity by OPEC, the disruptive consequences of speculative activity; growing supply risks and the increasing demand for energy, not least from the United States itself, but also from China, India, Brasil and other countries. World oil production was estimated at 68 million barrels per day in 2003. By 2025 it is estimated that demand would be 119 million barrels per day.
In such a situation, the US is anxious about its access to Venezuelan crude being maintained (14% of imports). The Venezuelans are once more engaging in what the Yankees call “resource nationalism”; diversifying their markets to lessen dependence on the US where 60% of its crude traditionally headed; developing a close relationship with China, the great rival of the US in its search for energy; engaging in pocket book diplomacy in the insular Caribbean; easing the pressure on Cuba.
It is all the more galling to the gringos when reports surface that Venezuela may have the largest oil deposit on the planet in the tar soaked Orinoco basin with potentially 300 billion barrels of extra heavy oil, which with the high price of oil, is no longer too costly or too difficult to produce. Global proven oil reserves are estimated to be 1.26 trillion barrels. Venezuela begins to loom large!
T&T Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s policy is to try to snuggle up tightly in the arms of the US, while having cordial relations with Venezuela. This means doing business with Venezuela, co-operating on security matters, strengthening cultural bonds. After all, T&T and Venezuela are very close neighbours and have shared family and trade relationships ever since Venezuelan pyongs opened up the valleys of the Northern Range and began the saga of Trinidad Cocoa. Venezuela gave us Brian Lara!
On September 5th, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago in a speech at a function organised by British Gas in Port of Spain, caused a raising of eyebrows. He chided the United States for its attitude toward the Caribbean. Karen Harbert responded to the Prime Minister’s statement during the conference in a conciliatory manner.
Mr. Manning raised the issue of Venezuela’s Petro Caribe policy:
“(Caribbean countries) will have access to products from Venezuela transported in ships controlled by Venezuela in storage in their own countries owned and controlled in joint venture between Venezuela and a state entity…the storage now controlled by the multi-nationals will be of no value to them, they are likely to leave because they will also have lost their market …
Venezuela becomes the dominant player….the position of market dominance imposes an obligation on the dominant entity and that obligation is energy security that Trinidad and Tobago provides…for the region now and if a situation develops where our position is displaced then surely … the responsibility for providing energy security to the Caribbean can no longer rest on the shoulders of Trinidad and Tobago and CARICOM countries will have to consider whether that is a happy position in which to find oneself …Trinidad and Tobago has had a stable Government we are stable politically and in so many other respects we are committed to Caribbean development and we have up until now been very successful to giving the Caribbean the level of security to which the Caribbean aspires.”
While he seems to be addressing CARICOM nations, in fact he is pointing out to the United States that Venezuela is expanding its influence in America’s so-called third border area. He has raised the question of the energy security of the Caricom nations being dependent upon revolutionary Bolivarian Venezuela and its Petro Caribe policy and not T&T (a reliable “stable politically” ally of the US).
What Mr. Manning does not say is that as a producer/refiner Trinidad and Tobago could not benefit from Petro Caribe because its oil industry is controlled by transnational corporations and is operated in their interest and not that of T&T.
He wants the US to provide duty free access for “Caribbean goods”, frets over the imminent demise of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, complains that the US is no longer interested in the fight against drugs in the Caribbean and even offers to patrol the Eastern Caribbean, if the US finances it.
Prime Minister Manning pointed out T&T’s “importance” to the energy security of the US:
“…for the first four months of this year we supplied … 73% of all US imports of LNG… we are going to have to decide whether we wish to place all our eggs in one basket; in the way that they are placed now too much of our LNG goes to one destination …and incidentally at prices that are not by any means the best prices that are available in the market.”
Mr. Manning is incapable of carrying out any threat of using LNG exports to the USA as a tool to affect US foreign policy in the Caribbean for two reasons. Firstly, the loss of T&T’s exports of LNG to the USA is hardly a threat to US energy security. While more than 70 % of LNG imports of the USA come from T&T, LNG accounts for less than 3% of US natural gas consumption. T&T, therefore supplies just over 2% of total US natural gas consumption, which works out to be .5% of US energy consumption. With more countries getting in to LNG the percentage is sure to drop over the next few years.
Secondly, Mr. Manning’s government has no control over the marketing of LNG. Like the bulk of the energy industry, this in the hands of the transnationals (BP, BG, Repsol). He has no cards to play in his embarrassing whinge to Washington about their lack of attention to the Caribbean. Or does he?
Manning’s spiel is like that of a house slave who is not one of his master’s favourites, so he sulks and pouts. Manning should be relieved that T&T does not figure much on the radar of the US as the declining hegemon scrambles for energy sources all over the globe and is not averse to using its military might to secure its interests.
What Mr. Manning should be worried about is that Venezuela figures prominently in the energy security of the US. According to Ms. Harbert, Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs U.S. Department of Energy as part of her Testimony before the Committee on International Relations' Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere "Western Hemisphere Energy Security" on Thursday, March 2, 2006: Energy security is inextricably intertwined with economic prosperity and national security...We believe that a secure and prosperous Western Hemisphere is vital for our national interest.”
“Actions taken by any country to misuse or mismanage their energy resources without considering the global implications of their actions will have a negative impact on every country.”
“Key foreign policy objectives, including support for democracy, trade, sustainable economic development, poverty reduction, and environmental protection, rely on the provision of safe, reliable and affordable energy supplies.”
In other words, Latin America must know its place. Venezuela has no right to operate its energy industry in its own interests and at the heart of American foreign policy philosophy is access to energy supplies.
As the contradiction between the US and Venezuela sharpens, the Bolivarian regime is going to be subjected to renewed bouts of subversion, political interference and economic sabotage. The US already has a military presence in Colombia.
Ever since Don Francisco de Miranda used Port of Spain in 1806-1807 as a base to pursue the independence struggle against Spain in the early 19th century, Trinidad’s capital city has harboured Venezuelan revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries and the two countries have become inextricably intertwined in a relationship that goes way beyond trade. During the revolutionary insurrection in T&T in 1970, Venezuelan warships entered T&T waters.
Manning’s speech cannot be viewed as a half-hearted protest against US policy. He holds no cards and goes out of his way to defend the interests of US and other multinationals against the interests of his own people. His indifference to the residents of Chatham’s fight against the siting of an Alcoa aluminium smelter in their area illustrates the point. Not even in his wildest Walter Mitty secret life fantasy can Manning be described as a “resource nationalist.” So what’s the game?
There is an energy war taking place in the Caribbean. The main protagonists are the USA and Venezuela. T&T is a bit player. Mr. Manning is being used by US imperialism, like so many other Caribbean leaders before him (Burnham, Seaga, Eugenia Charles), as a tool in its battle to crush the Venezuelan revolution.
Don’t be surprised, but be very concerned, if you see T&T signing bilateral trade and security deals with the US. Do not be surprised, but be very concerned, if you see the FBI or the DEA, or whatever US intelligence agency, beefing up its presence in Port of Spain in an apparent response to Manning’s plea, but in reality to use the sovereign territory of T&T as a hotbed of subversion and sabotage against our revolutionary neighbour.. Be proactive and make it quite clear to Mr. Manning that the people of T&T will not willingly allow themselves to be used in America’s unjust war against Venezuela.
15/09/2006
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