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PM’s Call to “Drill At Will” In Protected Areas
posted (February 10, 2011)
Last night we reported plentifully on the Prime Minister's quarterly press conference, but the event was two hours long! And while there were no major revelations, there were many newsworthy comments.

We didn't get to visit all of them last night, but tonight, we have reloaded the press conference to examine some newsworthy remarks.

First, the Prime Minister re-stated his government's absolute determination to drill in onshore protected areas, specifically, the Sarstoon Temash National Park:

PM Dean Barrow
"Insofar as national parks that are not offshore, onshore national parks are concern - I made it absolutely plain that the government has no intention of stopping the exploration process especially not in the Sarstoon/Temash Park which I believe is still being co- managed by Mr. Choc's organization. That area, the geologist says is perhaps the highest potential area in the country and the question of the legality of drilling in a national park went to court and the Supreme Court gave a decision saying that this was perfectly consistent, perfectly in order. That remains the position of the government and that position will not change."

"US Capital Energy which is the company that has the concession I think is no more than 6 - 9 months away from actually beginning to drill and certainly once they reach that point, drill they will, and hopefully we can find some more oil that will help us to begin to meet with some degree of ease these Superbond payments."

"This government is always prepared to dialogue with the conservationists and I can see our undertaking not to - as we've done with the OPIC concession - not to award exploration licenses in certain areas. A great deal of work would have to be done to determine which areas should qualify. There are top flight environmentalists who tell us that more damage is done by far with the land clearing and the putting in of pastures and the planting of corn and that sort of thing. So my point is that while we are not going to turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of the conservationists, a lot of joint effort will have to go in the exercise of determining which area should perhaps be marked off as untouchable."

And what about the 14 protected areas in the Maya Mountain Masif that have been awarded to a company called Paradise Energy?

According to Director Of Geology and Petroleum Andre Cho, they will have to get environmental clearance:…

Andre Cho
"In regards to the protected areas, I know a lot of people are saying that there is a lot of protected areas there. There is a protected area in US Capital's concession license area and for the them to work in there they have to go through a process; they have to get a permit from the Forest Department and a permit from the Environment and do an EIA if that is necessary."

Cho says Paradise Energy will have to get clearance for every area they choose to explore. And while onshore exploration has the executive green light, granting new blocs in the offshore area is on hold for three months to see if the "Coalition To Save Our National Heritage" can get enough signatures to trigger a referendum.

The PM said the victory is OCEANA's not COLA's happy campers who slept in front of his office:

PM Dean Barrow
"I see the people who had their camp out not too far from the administration building in Belmopan - claim victory. Well that's alright, nobody wants to burst their bubble. Ms. Ramos - they camped out I think on the Tuesday that the Cabinet made their decision - Ms. Ramos who interviews me from the Amandala from the Thursday before will tell you that I indicated to her that we would - subject only to Cabinet - we would, in fact, in response to OCEANA, undertake not to give back out the concession. So there is a little bit of a difficulty with timing where COLA is concerned but as I say in the sense that it is perhaps a victory for all the environmentalists, let COLA have its share of the victory. I also learned from Mr. Cho that an offshore well was in this country....like something like 18 offshore well had been drilled, The last one was done in 1997 in 2000 feet of water, but 19 wells and not a squeak from anybody and if is such a dangerous thing I wonder how on earth nothing happened throughout that period."

And moving from oil to the budget, the Prime Minister says that the new budget will be presented on the second Friday in March and it will show increased revenues from the oil industry and more tax paid by you the consumer in the form of GST revenue:….

PM Dean Barrow
"Business tax and royalties on petroleum total 49.3 million dollars and that is 27.4 million higher than the similar period in fiscal year 2009/2010. In the case of GST, collections rose by 24.8 million to 140.9 million but I have to point out that is still below the target of 155 million. We expect that this will be a good budget. Certainly and principally because I repeat what I said a couple of weeks ago, there are going to be no new taxes on the Belizean people for this fiscal year."

And that budget will not apparently reflect the wisdom of the IMF which recently issued its country report on Belize.

PM Dean Barrow
"There has not been any exercise to go through the IMF recommendations. I would make a confession...but I don't want to insult the IMF so I will just leave it at that - we haven't done that exercise."

Adele Ramos, Amandala
"Are you now satisfied with the full report that's been released?"

PM Dean Barrow
"Well I don't know that it matters."

And carping generally about multilaterals the PM also complained about the World Bank, which has been slow in disbursing funding for a 30 million dollars municipal drainage project.

PM Dean Barrow
"These people really move painstakingly slowly, when we complain, they say, 'Well it's because of the history before the cutoff of the last government and the abuses that took place.' The fact is though that for whatever reason they are moving slowly. We don't expect now to see the first spade in the ground - so to speak - until after the midway point of this calendar year and already it's a 30 million dollar project divided among 6 municipalities. Already over 8 million dollars has been spent on foreign consultancies but that's the price we pay for getting funding from these IFI's and in particular the World Bank."

And even after all those consultancies, Estimates are that work will not start until mid year.

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