Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Have not lost my tongue. Had to go to work! It is the middle of the day in the Bahamas you know. I do not believe it was timed on purpose, although I understand why it might look so. And I'm not dramping anything. Show me where I have dramped. All I'm doing is pointing out to you guys how certain statements come across, so you can stop making them. And perhaps whoever is actually Potter will get the message too. Finally, yes Harry I use fossil fuel derived products all the time, and happily so!
Have a great weekend as well!
I totally agree. I am not sure why they government is remaining so silent. This may or may not be a "defining moment" for the Bahamas, but a real down to earth conversation about what the benefits could be, in concrete terms, is what is needed.
Because after 10 years of stalling, people in the Bahamas did not seriously believe this day would come. BPC is one of several large-scale industrial projects forever in the making that usually end up coming to nothing, so it was a background issue in the national conversation, if at all. So BPC got a new license or approval or whatever in Feb, so what? BPC is always getting renewals and approvals and nothing happens. To think the legal challenge was timed on purpose in some calculated manner is to give them more credit than they deserve. And BPC is barking up the wrong tree in continuing to make that claim in public because people know its not true.
CarsCoffee - I completely agree - thank you. If public opinion in The Bahamas matters at all (maybe it doesn't), BPC should start talking in specifics about possible revenues and encourage the government to begin explaining what they plan to do with it to improve the country. Grand, vague statements about how great this will all be for the poor backward islanders do not sound sincere. Dig into some detail and it begins to seem real. Done properly, Potter and Co could completely undercut local opposition.
At the end there it should have been 'we ga drill fer erl' but good try. A for effort ShareScare!
You are free to ignore my advice, but I am here in the ground and I am telling you how it is. Whether you think it is justified or not.
ShareScare I am not the CEO of a hotel.
Cars coffee, I hear you. Just saying the tone comes across as condescending and is not well received. Colonialism and all. Best not to be telling poor people how you are coming from across the sea to save them.
Are you denying being Potter?
Haha ShareScare, if I am the CEO of a resort, you are Simon Potter!
ill advised
ShareScare, I am a Bahamian, I have been very clear about that. Nor am I the only one on here. All I am saying is that its I'll advised to go on about how wonderful this will all be for the Bahamas. It does not endear BPC to locals who know better. Ramp away, to be sure! But leave the condescension out of it. This is good advice, you should take it.
Not how many in the Bahamas see it. These numbers are by and large correct:
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2020/dec/10/oil-wont-improve-our-lives/
Oh nevermind... works now.
@onlybpc. not at all. Whenever I try to share a link, it rejects me! See:
https://thenassauguardian.com/darville-ngos-blindsided-by-oil-drilling-approval/
End:
Then, we would become a fully-fledged petrostate, a client country at the mercy of BPC, with no choice but to rely on the company for its little payments here and there in order to survive. This is the sad reality for many impoverished countries with oil in Africa and Central America. Perhaps they had no choice, but we do.
We have the highest per capita income in the Caribbean precisely because of our ability to commercialize the natural beauty and abundance of this country and make it highly lucrative. Destroy that beauty and you destroy our advantage. And then we will be just another failed state to be exploited by parasitical multinational companies while our quality of living tanks and environment continues to be poisoned.
Regards,
Ricardo Johnson
Lead letter in Tribune and Guardian today:
Bahamas Petroleum Company continues to roll out its “friendly Bahamian face”, otherwise known as James Smith, to parrot the dodgy slogans by CEO Simon Potter and the rest of the outside interests looking to make a quick buck by striking oil in the Bahamas.
Smith, like Potter, claims that finding oil will have a huge impact on the Bahamas. He says it could improve our standard of living and even prevent starvation!
This is a load of nonsense. By BPC’s own estimate, even if they are fantastically successful, it could mean $5 billion in revenue for the Bahamas over the next 20 years. That’s about $250 million a year, or roughly what it costs us to run the Department of Education from January to December.
That’s right. Just one government department. Admittedly a big department, but still it represents only a tiny slice of our annual budget, which runs around $3 billion every year. Added to which, we are now $9 billion in debt and counting.
In other words, absolute best case scenario: BPC will give us the equivalent of one thirty-sixth of our national debt per year. Far less than the amount by which the debt grows each year. In fact, I’m not sure it would even cover the interest payments.
And we all know that there is very little chance of this best case scenario happening. Much more likely, BPC will find just enough oil to dribble a few million into the treasury from time to time. Remember, they are paying us royalties IF AND ONLY IF they outperform their projections each year. And guess who gets to set the projections.
What are we being forced to risk in return? A tourism industry worth $1.3 billion a year which is responsible for 50% of the jobs in this country. In other words, everything we have. Our livelihood and our children’s future.
But while even a huge oil find won’t improve life for most Bahamians by any noticeable measure, one group’s circumstances will change dramatically for the better. Simon Potter and crew, including James Smith who is a director and shareholder in BPC, will all become fantastically rich by putting our economy and society in grave danger.
That is what this deal is really all about: making money for them and leaving us, the Bahamian people, saddled with all the risk. Make no mistake, this was a case of ‘our interests versus their profit’ from the beginning. We should remember that they have a major vested interest whenever they speak to us of the benefits for Bahamians.
Because remember, the well they are proposing to drill now is not for extraction. In order to generate any revenue for the Bahamas at all, BPC will have to be allowed to follow up by drilling multiple wells, perhaps dozens, at multiple locations within five different license areas. And if anything goes wrong at any one of those sites, it could be the end of our tourism product overnight.
Darville: NGOs blindsided by oil drilling approval
In a lengthy affidavit in support of a bid by environmental interests to stop the Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) exploratory drilling set to take place 90 miles off Andros this month, Executive Chairman of the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay Joseph Darville paints a picture of stakeholders being kept in the dark as the government quietly granted approvals to BPL.
A key ground of the legal action filed this week by Waterkeeper Bahamas Ltd. and the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save The Bays) against the government is what they described as a lack of consultation, notwithstanding the fact that the groups were invited to a meeting with Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira in 2018.
Darville says that three weeks after the BPC application for environmental authorization and its environmental impact assessment (EIA) and environmental management plan (EMP) were submitted (which was not known to interested environmental groups at the time) a large number of environmental NGOs were invited to a meeting with Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira, which took place at the minister’s offices on May 17, 2018
The purpose of the meeting, he says, was to discuss the government’s position on the future of oil drilling in The Bahamas.
Prior to the meeting, Darville says, the NGOs had been surprised with comments made in a press statement by BPC CEO Simon Potter, who said, “The submission of an application for environmental authorization is an important milestone for BPC, as we move toward offshore field activity and operations in The Bahamas…”
Darville states, “At the meeting the minister questioned each person and organization about their views with respect to oil drilling in The Bahamas. We all objected to it and said it was something that should never be done in our waters.
“The same question was then put to the minister by myself and others. He said he did not have an opinion but that as far as the Cabinet of The Bahamas is concerned, there would ‘never’ be a permission given for offshore drilling for oil in The Bahamas.
“At this, there erupted a big explosion of applause and congratulations and we all went our way comfortable and joyful.”
Darville says, “There was no communication from the minister at that meeting that they were on track to approve oil drilling, that there were new proposals or extensions of existing proposals being considered by government, or that we had any reason to be concerned.
“We came away from the meeting with the very clear impression that there was no immediate threat of oil drilling in Bahamian waters and at least not during the Minnis administration.”
Darville says, “I now know, but I was unaware at the time, that on January 31, 2020, BPC announced a roadmap to drilling the Perseverance #1 well in 2020.”
- It goes on from there, but I appear to have arrived at the word limit.
At some point this afternoon.
You know, I think Shares are is actually Simon Potter. Has that occurred to anyone else?