The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An environmental activist is again demanding the Government take a “definitive” stance on oil drilling in Bahamian waters as he branded this nation's efforts to combat climate change a “fallacy” without banning such activities.

Joseph Darville, head of Save the Bays and Waterkeepers Bahamas (WKB), reiterated to Tribune Business: "Saying no to oil drilling has to be unequivocal, and has to be put in documentation and made in a sacred trust that there will never be such a thing as oil drilling, neither on land or offshore in the archipelagic nation of The Bahamas.”

Without the Government taking such a step, he asserted that the Government's efforts to monetise this nation's environment and so-called "carbon sinks" via initiatives such as the Climate Change and Carbon Market Initiatives Bill 2022 were effectively meaningless.

The Prime Minister, in his public statements, has said that while his administration would permit future oil exploration in Bahamian waters it would not allow commercial extraction of any discoveries. Instead, somewhat like carbon credits, it would then seek to obtain financial compensation for deciding not to access this resource and, in so doing, aiding the world's efforts to reduce fossil fuel use and fight climate change.

Mr Darville, though, branded this position as a “fallacy”. He added: “It has been proven from seismic exercises that there is oil in The Bahamas. We don’t even know why Bahamas Petroleum Company abandoned the oil exploration? They did not complete the drilling of that place and, interestingly enough, without accurate information and with a lack of a Freedom of Information Act to gain information we don’t know exactly why they stopped.”

Bahamas Petroleum Company, now Challenger Energy Group, in early 2021 said its Perseverance One well - drilled in waters 90 miles west of Andros - failed to uncover commercial oil deposits that would be economically viable to extract. It has since moved on to more promising territory in Trinidad, where it acquired an entity that owned fields already producing oil, as well as offshore exploration licences off Uruguay.

However, it has not given up on The Bahamas. Challenger has repeatedly said it is seeking to negotiate an extension of its four now-expired exploration licences with the Bahamian government which, if successful, would be used for the drilling of another exploratory well in this nation's waters. However, it has indicated that no further oil drilling will take place unless it finds a joint venture partner to share the financial, technical and operational risk.

Mr Darville said he hoped oil exploration in Bahamian waters was “dead”, with activists still awaiting the Prime Minister's response to their letter calling for the Government to make a “definitive determination” on the issue.

“That has to be sworn in legal terms. The Bahamas is still quibbling around with it, and I think it is for the benefit of other people who may have been entangled in this affair initially, and those who probably still are on the slate, to gain benefits from it. So it’s the devil in the details,” he added.

As for The Bahamas' efforts to monetise its environment via carbon credits, Mr Darville said: “We have a phenomenal amount of mangroves in this archipelagic nation of The Bahamas, and we have an abundance of reefs and channels and so forth, so we have a very live and productive ocean and coastal area, and what protects our coastal area are the mangroves because they have the ability to suppress that abundance of carbon more than any other tree.

“So we are in a potentially good area in order for people to benefit in reducing their carbon footprint, but not at the same time encourage them to maintain their foolishness. If we are enabling them to do that then it is a contradiction in terms, and I certainly hope and pray that we don’t go down that route simply because we are going to get a few dollars or something. We are going to allow other major companies in the world to continue to pollute our environment with fossil fuels and so on.”