The Tribune

THE price of gas may be around $7 a gallon right now, but Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has a solution, it seems – Venezuela.

Mr Davis is hoping that the lifting of sanctions on the nation will see the price of fuel start to drop.

As he arrived back in The Bahamas yesterday after his trip to Rwanda and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, he said: “As you would have heard me earlier speak about the energy crisis and what we’re doing as Small Island Developing States at these conferences is to have the United States and the industrialised world to remove sanctions in particular for Venezuela, which is now working, that we hope would be a step in relieving the cost of fuel to Bahamians.”

He added: “What is in our control and which I have been doing is letting our voice be heard about some of the initiatives and policies in some of the industrialised world that is causing the increase in oil. Quite apart from the invasion of Ukraine there are also other issues like the sanctions on Venezuela that impacted the cost of fuel, particularly for us. So, if those sanctions are lifted it helps and so we have been agitating.”

Readers with good memories will remember Venezuela being the hope of lower fuel prices previously for The Bahamas – when former chairman of what was then the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), Leslie Miller, under a previous PLP administration, sought to lower electricity costs by importing Venezuelan oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

Indeed, Mr Miller prior to that wanted The Bahamas to join Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan oil association. Back in 2012, he said: “We need to now look at an oil producing country to satisfy the demands of BEC and throughout the country as a whole.”

His move won little favour, just as his efforts to bring LNG to the country were largely frowned on.

Yet here we are coming full circle under a PLP administration again to see Venezuela as our nation’s hope of saving money.

Will it be a fool’s errand? We shall wait and see – but one of the causes of a spike in oil prices of course is the war between Ukraine and Russia. Venezuela’s oil production rate doesn’t match the Russian rate – but unlocking it could help. Would The Bahamas, though, be at the front of the queue? Or would we be taking our place along with everyone else?

Any reduction brought about by Venezuela reserves being made available would be a global one, and might take time as the oil begins to flow.

Will it be likely to come in time to stop the talk of price increases at BPL? Or will this government have to bite the bullet and impose those rises on citizens? That would go alongside the prospect of rises in domestic gas, as we report in today’s Tribune, the price rises on food, the possibility of greater contributions to NIB and so it goes on and on.

The Venezuela issue is a prospect worth exploring – but there’s no magic wand that will restore our money to our pockets any time soon.

The proof will be in the gas prices we report every day. Will they still be about $7 in two months’ time? We’ll mark August 27 in our calendar to report back.