The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said environmentalists are "not the only voice in the room" when it comes to determining whether The Bahamas should permit oil exploration in its waters.

Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment and housing, said the debate over whether to approve such activities remained "speculative" because Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) - the one company approved to conduct exploration - had yet to confirm the presence of commercial quantities of recoverable oil.

Pointing out that the Minnis administration had inherited BPC's approved licences from its predecessors, Mr Ferreira said it had decided not to issue any further offshore oil drilling and exploration licences.

"The BPC situation was an ongoing concern, so it wasn't really a new licence," he explained, suggesting that the debate over whether to approve drilling and exploration activities in Bahamian waters should only take place if oil is discovered.

"No one has drilled any test well because there is no sort of concrete determination that we have oil in the rocks or oil in the substratum or oil below ground in The Bahamas. But that's the debate for a national discussion," Mr Ferreira said.

"I think all Bahamians are excited, and some are concerned, about the prospect of finding oil. The environmentalists are concerned, and they have every right to be, but of course they're not the only voice in the room and so we consider all opinions and we'll make a decision should we find oil."

Yet he reiterated: "Remember all of this is very speculative. We still have not confirmed the presence of oil in the substratum."

Environmentalists have already branded BPC's plans to drill a first exploratory well several hundred miles south-west of Andros, in waters close to the maritime boundary with Cuba, as "absolutely disturbing".

The likes of Joseph Darville, of Save the Bays and Waterkeepers Bahamas; Sam Duncombe of reEarth; and Casuarina McKinney-Lambert, executive director of The Bahamas Reef, Environment and Educational Foundation (BREEF), have all argued that permitting fossil fuel-related activities goes against the climate change fight that is critical to The Bahamas' future.

The burning of oil and other such fuels is seen as a key contributor to the global warming blamed for producing storms with the power of Hurricane Dorian, resulting in environmental activists charging that it would be hypocritical for The Bahamas to permit exploration activities - especially at a time of such suffering.

There are also fears that oil exploration is incompatible with The Bahamas' major industry, tourism, and the pristine environment this nation relies upon to attract such business - especially should a spill or some kind of accident pollute the country's waters.

BPC, though, has repeatedly pointed out that its activities will take place well away from The Bahamas' major tourism centres and islands, with the tidal currents likely to take any spills away from those areas. It has also emphasised its commitment to adhere to high environmental standards.

There is also the argument that The Bahamas cannot afford to ignore the potential multi-million dollar windfall from an oil discovery, especially given its need for an economic game-changer and the extent of the fiscal damage and losses created by Hurricane Dorian.

Simon Potter, BPC's chief executive, told Tribune Business this week that shareholder approvals at the company's recent annual general meeting (AGM) had provided total certainty that it will be able to finance the $20m-$25m cost of its first exploratory well whichever route it took to get there.

Disclosing that "substantial progress is being made on all fronts", Mr Potter added that the government's extension of BPC's licences until the end of next year had helped to "focus minds" on the task in hand and give the oil exploration outfit impetus to rapidly press forward.

Conceding that BPC may have been too "pre-occupied" with the search for a joint venture 'farm-in' partner to share the financial and technical risks associated with its exploratory well, he said the company's securing of "world class" rig and services providers was "a measure of the progress we've made".

Mr Potter added that both BPC and its consultants, and the government's consultants, were working towards an end-2019 target for the completion and submission of documents required to obtain Environmental Authorisation (EA) for the first well.