PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning, said a new agreement with Venezuela would allow his nation to honour its 2003 agreement to supply Jamaica with 160 million cubic feet of liquefied natural gas for use in its bauxite industry.

Jamaica recently turned to Venezuela to make up the shortfall after Trinidad announced that its limited gas supply prevented it from honouring the agreement.

Joint exploration

Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela have signed an agreement to facilitate the joint exploration of a large gas field straddling the two countries' maritime borders, Mr. Manning revealed, Wednesday.

The Trinidad Prime Minister, who travelled to Caracas for talks with Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, on Tuesday, said the gas utilisation treaty had cleared the way for the joint exploitation of the so-called Loran/Manatee field, which was projected to yield around 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Prime Minister said all that remained to be done was for both oil producing countries to decide how to jointly develop the gas field.

He described the treaty as the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and noted that it had its genesis in a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries.