Second oil well for Spanish Lookout

With the tragedy on the U.S. Gulf Coast appearing to grow with each passing day, it is apparent that the repercussions of that natural disaster will be felt globally. For Belize, that means the likelihood of radically higher gasoline prices, caused primarily by inflated crude oil prices and a shortage of refinery capacity. How much of a hit we’ll take is not yet known, but in various parts of the States far from Katrina’s path, fuel prices have risen from twenty-five to seventy-five cents per gallon. With increases like that on the horizon, we can only hope for the success of Venezuela’s Petrocaribe initiative. Last week Public Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca travelled to Caracas to negotiate details of the bilateral agreement under which Belize will access Venezuelan petroleum products. A national entity, the Belize Petroleum Energy Company has been established and a formal signing ceremony will take place on September sixth in Kingston, Jamaica between Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and leaders of those Caribbean nations taking part in the initiative. Belize will be represented at that event by Minister of Natural Resources Johnny Briceño.

And while the Petrocaribe deal may ease some of the pain in the short run, Belizeans are still holding out some long term hope for crude oil much closer to home. Word from Spanish Lookout is that the drilling rig is now being moved to a new location about a mile and a half away where a new well will be sunk to probe the size of any oil field that may exist beneath the rolling hills of the nation’s largest Mennonite settlement. At the same time, equipment is being assembled in the United States for installation at the first well head to determine how much oil can be sustainably extracted. The results should be available within two months.