PROTECTING BARBADOS
Any exploration of the waters off Barbados for oil and gas will not put this country’s blue economy at risk.
So says Prime Minister the Right Honourable Freundel Stuart, who noted that as a service economy, any “serious miscarriages” in the blue economy could impact negatively on what the country is doing onshore. He was at the time introducing the Offshore Petroleum (Amendment) Bill in the House of Assembly yesterday morning for debate, which he said is designed to protect the offshore acreage of Barbados.
“Let us not forget, Mr. Speaker, that Barbados is a service economy. We rely very heavily on our tourism and we rely on our international business and financial services sector predominantly to lead this economy. But tourism in particular has to be twined to what we do offshore because if anything goes wrong offshore, given the selling points Barbados has used over the years in its tourism thrust – the quality of our beaches, the sand and the sea and the sun – if anything goes wrong in our offshore resources that can impact on what happens to Barbados onshore,” he said.
PM Stuart made the point as he noted that small countries like Barbados have to be mindful that some things, like oil spills, that would be overlooked in respect of large countries are usually not overlooked in respect of small ones.
“We have had oil spills in large countries, United States of America for example, but when these oil spills have been discussed, they have not been discussed in terms of running away tourists or anything like that. They’ve been discussed in terms of how much the clean up contributed to the growth of output in the American economy… not in terms of the environmental damage, but the clean up, the jobs it created and so on, the circulation of money that resulted.”
He added, “If that happened in a small island in the Caribbean, Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada or whatever, the implications would be completely different.”
Prime Minister’s Stuart’s comments came as he maintained that in the management of the island’s offshore acreage and the management of the licences to those who will explore and exploit the resources therein for the benefit of Barbados, Government has been careful to ensure that all of the possible protective mechanisms are put in place to protect the country. He made the point while noting that to date licences have been awarded for three blocs – two to BHP Billiton and one to Repsol. He disclosed that an agreement has already been signed with the former and they are working towards finalising the other.
He added that as the work was done to get the agreement finalised, Government recognised that the legislation needed to be strengthened as well as made more user friendly and true to life. As such, he said after detailed and disciplined review, and in light of the experience gained in dealing with the first licensee of the first two blocs, the decision was taken that a few changes would have to be made to the legislation, including extending the period within which the licensee would have to provide an environmental plan and environmental impact assessment (EIA) from 90 days to nine months.
He said after the negotiations with BHP Billiton, the designated authority and the officials in the Ministry of Energy, the 90 day timeframe was thought to be too short a period, as to do such work, even onshore, can take longer sometimes more than a year to complete. In addition to the extension of the period within which the EIA is to be done and presented, he said that after each phase of an exploration licence, other than the final phase, the licensee would have to relinquish 25 per cent of the licence area, as opposed to 50 per cent in the original Act.
Meanwhile, he said the third amendment speaks to the change of control of the licensee, which stipulates that such cannot take place without the knowledge and permission of the designated authority. (JRT)