Cabinet seeks bigger slice of oil revenues

Belmopan continues to wrestle with the question of how to handle what it hopes will be a large and continuing flow of cash from the nation’s first oil find. Today, according to an official press release, cabinet set up a three man committee to direct government policy on petroleum, particularly on how to maximize G.O.B. tax revenues while at the same time encouraging exploration. The committee members are Minister of Natural Resources Johnny Briceno, Attorney General Francis Fonseca and Minister of Foreign Trade Eamon Courtenay. Courtenay also chairs the Petroleum Advisory Board, a ten member mixed group of public and private sector representatives that will also provide policy suggestions. Government’s oft-stated goal is to wind up with at least fifty percent of the net profits generated by the petroleum industry. At present Belmopan’s share ranges from twenty to thirty-eight percent, depending on whose figures you choose to believe. Included in the new strategy is the decision approved by Cabinet to acquire a ten percent interest in Belize Natural Energy’s Spanish Lookout oil field. That purchase is being financed interest free by B.N.E.