There is now a glimmer of hope that Venezuela may relent on the politically challenging subject of cross-border gas and allow some of its gas to come to Trinidad and Tobago for commercialisation.

How do I know that?

Because I have finally been able to obtain some details of the outcome of the discussions that took place in Caracas between our Energy and Energy Affairs Minister, Kevin Christian Ramnarine and Venezuela's Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramirez, in early December, when the former accompanied Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to the inaugural meeting of the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).

Of course, as is usual with the record of discussions between representatives of sovereign states, the language is guarded but minister Ramirez did pledge that, "Venezuela was prepared to enter into discussions on the terms of a joint arrangement with respect to the gas in block 1."

Block 1, as my two or three readers well know, is the matching acreage on the Venezuelan side in the Plataforma Deltana region, to bpTT's licensed area on the Trinidad side of the maritime border, where the Kapok field has been merrily producing gas for over a decade. The Venezuela discovery is called Dorado, which has not yet been put into production.

BPTT has been able to draw gas from Kapok because not all of the reserves are cross-border; indeed, the vast majority are not. Robert Riley, bpTT's former bossman, once told me the company thought only five per cent of the gas considered cross-border – such as that in the 30b sand – might straddle over into Venezuelan territory.

That estimate may have been revised since then, based on the studies of the joint technical working groups, but it is clear that Trinidad and Tobago has the upper hand in this pair of blocks and minister Ramirez's commitment is a reflection of that.

Gas classified as cross-border in Kapok/block 1 may be no more than around one trillion cubic feet (tcf), so it doesn't surprise me if Venezuela is willing to relent on this one, since its simply not worth the cost of taking its modest share all the way to the mainland.

Indeed, President Hugo Chavez Frias had himself said on his historic visit to Port of Spain in 2003 that, in reference to Kapok/block 1, "It is entirely feasible that we can send gas to be processed in Trinidad and, from there, the products could be exported to the US."

Caracas has no foreign partners in block 1, with state energy giant, PdVSA holding 100 per cent of the gas there, so decision-making with regard to the disposal of the joint-held reserves should be relatively uncomplicated.

The Letter of Intent signed the same year by Ramirez and Trinidad and Tobago's then energy minister, Eric Anthony Williams, specifically included a clause that held out the prospect of "monetisation of volumes of gas from Plataforma Deltana in LNG trains in Trinidad", as Louise Poy Wing, senior state counsel in the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs (MEEA) has pointed out in her book, "Unitisation, With Special Reference to The Trinidad and Tobago/Venezuela Process" (Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany).

While there is some hope for Venezuelan gas coming to Trinidad and Tobago in the case of Kapok/block 1, there seems to be none at all in the case of the much larger cross-border reserve in the Manatee/Loran discoveries in block 6d and 2, on the Trinidad and Venezuelan sides, respectively.

Eight trillion cubic feet of gas straddles this pair, 27 per cent or 2.1 tcf of it in Manatee and 73 per cent (5.9 tcf) in Loran. According to the report of the Ramnarine/Ramirez meeting (exclusively obtained by 'Energy Insider'), Venezuela has decided to "Monetise its portion of Loran-Manatee gas in Venezuela" though, as I understand it, not for LNG but domestic consumption.

As I have reported on many occasions in Energy Insider, Anton Castillo, director of PdVSA Gas, has categorically stated that Venezuela will be putting its LNG ambitions into cold storage and utilising gas in domestic activities, such as electricity generation and petrochemicals (with the modest exception, as it now appears, of the gas in block 1).

US major Chevron holds 39 per cent of the Loran reserves to PdVSA's 61 per cent (it is also the operator in Manatee, with 50 per cent to BG T and T's 50 per cent) and there has been some talk about it "swapping" its share in Loran if, and when, that gas is eventually developed, though how that will work in practice is a bit of a mystery.

There is a third pair of cross-border blocks – 5b in Trinidad (bpTT/RepsolYPF) and block 4 in Venezuela (Statoil/Total/PdVSA), where the Manakin and Coquina discoveries were respectively made.

BPTT's regional president, Trinidad, Norman Christie, told me recently, "We believe there is around two tcf of cross-border gas in those blocks but the reserves divisions have not yet been agreed upon."

Let's hope it happens so, if only because Minister Ramnarine presented the visionary proposal to Ramirez (Ramnarine is one of the few People's Partnership Cabinet ministers who actually possesses vision) of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela joining forces to "supply the Caribbean and Latin America with natural gas", according to the report of the proceedings.

He even has a name for it – Gas Caribe (the gas counterpart of Petro Caribe, only this one would be a joint endeavour).

Ramirez apparently regarded this as a "very good idea", which was "worthy of further discussion" (and the two were supposed to have had a follow-up meeting in Puerto La Cruz sometime this month to continue discussions on cross-border gas and other energy co-operation matters that fall under the purview of the joint Steering Committee and the Special Multi-Disciplinary Committee).

MEEA will be conducting "an in-depth analysis of the Gas Caribe concept, with respect to availability of natural gas and the pricing mechanism".

It seems to me that Gas Caribe is Ramnarine's way of allowing Venezuela to squeeze into the LNG market after all, at least in a modest way, on the basis of its reserves in block 1 if, in fact, they ever do come to Trinidad.

Indeed, Kapok/Dorado gas could well be developed to supply the small LNG plant being considered for La Brea, whose initial proposed customers are Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Since Kapok is already well established and the infrastructure exists on the Trinidad side, it means Venezuelan gas can be accessed cheaply from Trinidad, without the need for expensive replication of facilities in Venezuelan waters.

The Caribbean should be the first target for Gas Caribe with Central and, perhaps, South America, coming later, since Trinidad and Tobago already ships LNG to Argentina, Chile and Brazil.

David Renwick was awarded the Hummingbird Medal (Gold) in 2008 for the development of energy journalism in Trinidad and Tobago.