Critical Haiti gas terminal freed after weeks of talks with G9 gang leader (PHOTO)
The US government, which has been negotiating with the Haitian government since 2011 for the country’s offshore gas and oil reserves, is now pushing for the final phase of the talks to be resolved and the gas terminal reopening. There is now a glimmer of hope that the G9 gang leader and his country will now agree to the terms of the agreement, which include a deal to allow the terminal to be used for gas export.
Although the G8 gang leader has so far refused to meet with American President Barack Obama, he has agreed to grant the US $2.75 billion in oil revenues for the first time since the end of the last conflict with Haiti. This is a very good deal for the US government.
The deal was brokered by Bill Richardson, a former US Ambassador and former head of the US Consular services in Haiti, who has been in Haiti since 2008. This deal came as a blow to Haiti’s international lenders, who are insisting that Haiti has to pay over $2.5 billion for the country’s natural gas reserves by this year to ensure the country can service its debt obligations to the UN and international credit agencies.
Haiti has now agreed to pay at least 80% of the $2.75 billion in compensation and has agreed to shut down its gas and oil reserves and the port at the end of 2016.
If this happens, this deal would mark the final phase in negotiations which have been going on for over a year.
The G9 gang made a deal with Venezuela in June as part of the negotiations, allowing them to get the $2.75 billion for their country, which in turn allowed them to sell Venezuelan crude oil across the pipeline from Venezuela to the US.
The new deal, which was reached a week before the G9 gang was to meet with US President Barack Obama to discuss the deal, is a much better deal for the US government than the last one. The government has been working with the G9 gang for nearly two years on the agreement and the final agreement is that the US will receive $2.75 billion, which they will then use to pay down Haiti’s $
