The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A well-known businessman yesterday backed the Government’s decision to allow exploratory oil drilling ahead of any referendum, saying this essentially paved the way for “an easier sell”.

Superwash president Dionisio D’Aguilar said that while he had not come to a firm position yet on the oil exploration issue, the Government’s decision to allow testing before a national referendum would make the process easier.

““Let them go ahead and test,” he said. “If you want test the idea, it’s easier to sell it when you have an idea of how much reserves are down there. You can tell people this is how much money you are going to take in and people will say either it’s good or bad.”

Mr D’Aguilar said he believed that if the Government were to hold a referendum on it today it would be rejected.

“If they were to have that referendum right now people probably would vote against it wholesale,” he said.

“They probably want it to happen because they are pushing for it, and this is a way of inching closer. It’s easier to convince them on the merits of the project once they know there is some truth to the fact that there are resources there. If you don’t know what’s there people could always could say it’s a waste of time.”

The Minister of Environment and Housing, Kenred Dorsett, recently announced that the Government will allow exploratory drilling to determine whether there are commercial quantities of oil in the Bahamas prior to any referendum.

Mr Dorsett said it was unlikely there would be any referendum on oil exploration in the Bahamas prior to the 2015 second half, adding that the Government was not going to conduct a referendum without ascertaining whether there were commercial quantities of oil in the Bahamas.

“Exploration drilling is, of course, the only way the Bahamian people will be able to get a scientific answer to the burning question as to whether petroleum reserves even exist in commercial quantities in our waters,” the Minister said.

“Obviously, we are not going to have a referendum on a hypothetical proposition. We are not going to ask the electorate to vote on whether they want to develop an oil industry if there is no oil to begin with. Thus, we need to find out first, through exploration drilling, whether we do indeed have oil in commercially viable quantities. If we don’t, then obviously it would be completely pointless, and a shameful waste of public funds, to have a referendum on the matter.”