Trade Minister Leslie Miller yesterday cancelled a tell-all press conference he called on the troubled PetroCaribe oil deal, claiming a more pressing issue had arisen.
Mr Miller had called the press conference to respond to the swirl of questions and doubts now plaguing the accord.
“I had to put that off to deal with this situation down in Moores Island,” he told The Guardian yesterday.
Newspaper reports indicated Thursday that residents of the small island, south of Abaco, were paying $5.50 per gallon of gasoline at the fishing community’s only depot.
But the oil deal, which Mr Miller had thrashed out in Caracas last month with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, before signing, appeared doomed since early in the week.
The Guardian reported Wednesday that Perry Christie’s Cabinet had serious concerns with the deal. Sources told the Guardian that in the three weeks since Mr Miller’s return PetroCaribe had not even been included in the Cabinet’s top agenda items.
Mr Miller upon returning from signing the accord said it would have saved motorists money at gasoline pumps.
But a source told the Guardian that the view now being taken by the government is that the agreement would only benefit the Bahamas Electricity Corporation and not motorists.
At least one well-placed insider has alleged that Mr Miller had been instructed by Cabinet to bring the document back to The Bahamas for a review prior to signing. But in newspaper reports earlier in the week, he claimed he had permission from Cabinet colleagues to press ahead with the deal.
“I really don’t have to answer foolishness,” he told The Guardian Tuesday when asked to respond to the allegation. “So I wouldn’t even answer that.”
A fundamental part of PetroCaribe is that Venezuela would provide oil to The Bahamas at a cut-rate cost and that the government would distribute the fuel to suppliers. For this to happen, however, the government would need to have an agency that would manage oil storage and distribution.
At present no such agency exists and according to a well-placed source, Cabinet does not feel it could persuade motorists to abandon the present system of gas distribution in favour of a government-backed agency.
Meanwhile, The Guardian has also learned that The Bahamas would have to arrange bilateral agreements with Venezuela for the effects of the accord to come into force.
By RAYMOND KONGWA, Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter
