Fisheries Dept. concerned about offshore oil concessions

beverly wade

On Wednesday night’s newscast we showed you the updated Belize Petroleum Contracts map.  The February map listed seventeen companies which have been given concessions to explore for oil on land and sea.  That number now reaches eighteen as one more company, Northern Spirit Resources, has also been granted a license to search for oil.  News Five has been investigating the principals behind the slew of companies and one which has been granted a concession to look for oil in the sea is Princess Petroleum Limited. The register of the directors or managers of the company are: Sudi Ozkan and Memet Hamdi Karagozoglu, businessmen of the Princess casino on Newtown Barracks.  The secretary of the company is listed as attorney Rodwell Williams whose address is ninety-nine Albert Street. Williams is a senior partner at Barrow and Williams, the PM’s law firm.  The Association of Protected Management Organizations (APAMO) has vehemently said that it wants a ban on all offshore exploration.  The Fisheries Department, which manages several eco-sensitive marine areas throughout the country, is monitoring the developments and is concerned about how the concessions are granted. Beverly Wade, the Fisheries Administrator, says that her department is now liaising with other departments to start the discussion on whether or not there are areas that should not be considered for exploration.

Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator

“I must say that first of all, the concessions that have been given out are primarily a permitting process that happened through the Geology and Petroleum Department. At that point there is not necessarily consideration of whether or now—there is no real policy in place to say we are not going to give concessions for certain areas in Belizean Territory. My understanding is that the entire territory is blocked off. So there is no real policy in place, like in some countries to say well there are some areas that we are not going to give concessions for. Currently, it’s something that we are paying very close attention to because the situation in the gulf is just a reminder to all of us that if we are going to now be giving concessions in aquatic areas, there is a need for very strong coordination and cooperation between regulatory agencies to ensure that the mitigation measures are in place to address possible spills and possible disaster. At this point in time, the Fisheries Department is communicating with sister agencies and we are hopeful and we’re looking forward to now being engaged in the process when the activities are now going to be planned for those areas.”

Jose Sanchez

“There are areas that the Fisheries Department manages that would fall under right?”

Beverly Wade

“Right, the recent area of concern is for Fisheries on a whole, but in terms of areas directly managed by the Fisheries Department it really has implications for the Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve. It has some influence on the Glovers Reef Marine Reserve and if you look at the map basically there are concessions given out for South Water Caye Marine Reserve, Glovers Reef, Port Honduras; all of those areas are areas that we directly manage and obviously we would want to be involved in the permitting process when it actually comes to  the permitting of the testing.”

“For future consideration, it might be very useful to have a more broader discussion on the whole issue of the issuance of these concessions, to have an overarching policy which guides the issuance of these concessions. I know some of them have been given out for a period of time and the time period is now coming to an end and it might be an opportune time for us to look at a policy with regards as to whether or not there are some areas that we are not going to be in the business of giving out oil concessions, if there are some areas that we are going to concentrate on, given the other considerations that would now weigh in on such a decision.”