Taiwanese company to explore for oil in Belize

Back in September we reported on an item appearing in the Taiwanese media that the country was on the verge of signing a production sharing agreement with Belize. Almost four months after the signing was supposed to take place, today a release from the Government Press Office announced that it’s a done deal. According to the release, the P.S.A. was inked this morning in Belmopan between G.O.B. and OPIC Resource Corporation, an overseas subsidiary of the Chinese Petroleum Corporation of Taiwan. The P.S.A. grants the company rights to explore for petroleum offshore for eight years. In return G.O.B. says it will collect royalties, a share of the production, income tax, and ten percent working interest. Preliminary exploration is expected to begin in ninety days. Signing on the dotted line today were Minister of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega and OPIC President Dr. Ming-Tar Lu. In 2006, Cabinet gave the Taiwan company the go-ahead to study and identify oil and gas potential of the offshore areas of Belize. OPIC was told that at the end of the two-year period and subject to the results of the evaluation of the reprocessed seismic data, it may apply for a P.S.A.