27-08-02 Venezuela said that it intended to use gas reserves that it shares with Trinidad and Tobago for its own use, rather than be part of an expansion programme with Port of Spain.
"We believe that while [the] reservoir in block two, popularly called the Loran field, runs into Trinidad and Tobago waters, most of the reserves exist on our side of the border and we feel it's better for us to monetise it by using it for our own LNG production," Venezuela's junior Energy Minister Bernardo Alvarez told.

Alvarez is part of a high-powered Venezuelan delegation that arrived on a three-day visit for talks with senior Trinidad and Tobago government officials. The delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton Matos and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement said that the visit would be used to launch the "third Meeting of the Bilateral High-Level Consultative Commission".
This mechanism was established in 1990 with three objectives, including:
-- the supervision of the Trinidad and Tobago/Venezuela bilateral agenda;
-- the examination of new areas of existing agreements and programmes and their implementation; and
-- the exchange of views on themes of mutual interest.

Alvarez said that Venezuela wanted to utilize the resources at Loran field but was unwilling to allow that gas to be used to support the future expansion of the billion-dollars Atlantic LNG plant there.
British Gas was selected by Venezuela to explore and produce the Loran field along with its partner Chevron Texaco. This is the same partnership that has also the rights to the field on the Trinidad and Tobago side of the border.