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BLP Column: No energy and no sense
12/10/2009
Barbadians are paying dearly for the Democratic Labour Party’s failing grade on national energy policy. The DLP has already increased both water and energy prices by over 60 per cent. Barbadians cannot now tell what their petrol, bottled gas or electricity bill will be from one month to the next. This keeps energy costs artificially high and causes rampant inflation, unreasonably high prices and cost of living. Having messed up energy policy onshore, David, Darcy and the Dems are now destroying the offshore energy policy.
Given the potential for an oil find to transform Barbadian society and economy, it was an insult to Barbadians that such an announcement should come at Independence. The offshore programme can put money into the Government’s coffers at a time when it is badly needed. Under the BLP, Barbados made a considerable profit from the programme, collecting in excess of $20 million from the sale of seismic data to international oil companies.
The DLP does not have the vision or ability to take the programme forward successfully. In late 2007, Richard Sealy said in Parliament that the oil had been in the ground for thousands of years and we should not be in a hurry to take it out. In November 2007, the DLP column made light of the offshore potential and Thompson himself was quoted at public meetings as dismissing offshore exploration. The DLP Government has now officially dismissed the offshore programme, even though Norwegian seismic experts, who presented the data to the Barbados media and oil company representatives at meetings in Barbados, Texas and London, said that the data was excellent, with “structures similar to those in the North Sea”.
Given the then Opposition’s negative statements and the very extensive expenditure which the oil companies were making, they needed to be persuaded of the DLP Government’s commitment to the programme. Instead, the DLP delayed the project three times last year. In April 2008, at the Hilton, Darcy Boyce assured oil company representatives that the Government would announce the share it was proposing to take in the bid blocks and make a small amendment to the legislation by June so the companies could finish their planning. He has done neither and serious international businesses are not going to wait while the Dems play around for over a year-and-a-half.
Thompson says that exploration will take too long. The offshore financial services sector started by the BLP in the early 1980s, which the Dems did not support either, took 20 years to became a top foreign exchange earner for Barbados. The offshore oil programme has even better potential and Government’s immediate action is needed.
Both the global demand for, and the price of oil are increasing. International oil companies have therefore intensified their search for oil, even in the ultra-deep offshore. In consequence, other Caribbean islands are vigorously pursuing their offshore oil programmes. Barbados, which was the regional leader under the BLP, is now at the regional rear end under the Dems, according to the IMF, Standard and Poor’s and the UN Human Development Index.
DLP incompetence prevented them from signing the contract and receiving the millions of dollars in the biddable signature bonus which international oil company BHP Billiton was obligated to pay for their successful bid. The Dems should disclose how many millions of dollars Barbados lost through DLP delay and incompetence in handling the offshore programme.
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