{"id":27693,"date":"2012-11-06T08:20:16","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T13:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=27693"},"modified":"2012-11-06T08:20:16","modified_gmt":"2012-11-06T13:20:16","slug":"no-exploration-well-until-oil-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/11\/no-exploration-well-until-oil-referendum","title":{"rendered":"No Exploration Well Until Oil Referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Government will not permit the Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) to drill an exploratory oil well prior to a referendum, a Cabinet Minister telling Tribune Business he was aiming \u201cto advance\u201d a regulatory regime for the industry by the 2013 first quarter.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging that he was \u201cnot where I\u2019d like to be\u201d in terms of developing an oil exploration regulatory regime, Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment and housing, said his ministry was working closely with the Attorney General\u2019s Office to create a suitable framework.<\/p>\n

He also confirmed that the Government would waive any penalties, and there would be no impact on BPC\u2019s licences, if delays on the administration\u2019s behalf – such as the referendum – prevented the company from hitting the April 26, 2013, date by which it had committed to \u2018spud\u2019 an exploratory well in Bahamian waters.<\/p>\n

Several observers close to BPC suggested the company was hoping the Government might allow it to drill the exploratory well prior to a referendum, and was seeking to engage the Christie administration in talks on this.<\/p>\n

They pointed out that it only made sense to hold a referendum on permitting oil exploration in Bahamian waters once it was proven that commercial quantities, which were extractable, existed. This is the very thing that an exploratory well would confirm.<\/p>\n

Simon Potter, BPC\u2019s chief executive, said he knew nothing of any efforts by the company to engage the Government on this issue when contacted by Tribune Business in the UK.<\/p>\n

And, asked whether the Government might allow an exploratory well to be dug pre-referendum, Mr Dorsett replied: \u201cNo. I think that in our discussions with BPC it\u2019s been on the basis that the referendum will take place prior to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the discussions they have been having with us as well. Both of us have been discussing that the exploratory well will be dug subsequent to that condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncertainty, largely related to the referendum, given that its timing and wording are unknown, has been impacting BPC in recent weeks. Its share price on London\u2019s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) has been dropping slowly but steadily, given the numerous unknowns surrounding the Government\u2019s attitude and policy towards oil exploration in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

By Neil Hartnell<\/span><\/em>
\nTribune Business Editor<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

For the entire article, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government refuses to allow the Bahamas Petroleum Company to drill an exploratory oil well prior to an oil referendum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[244],"class_list":["post-27693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}