Museum exhibition looks at history of oil exploration
Ever since oil was discovered at Spanish Lookout two years ago, Belizeans have speculated, debated, and even demonstrated over how to deal with this new found resource. But the story of petroleum in Belize dates back a lot farther then August of 2005 … and today an exhibit opened at the Museum of Belize that links the dry wells of the past to the anticipated financial rewards of the future. News Five’s Stewart Krohn reports.
Stewart Krohn, Reporting
Over a half century before light sweet crude began to flow from the rolling hills of Spanish Lookout, the word’s major—and minor—oil companies had been punching holes in the Belizean earth and seabed. The history of those pioneering efforts, as well as the more recent success story of Belize Natural Energy, is told through a series of maps, photos, and diagrams … along with a historic drill bit mounted as preciously as the jade head.
And the analogy is not that farfetched, because just as jade was the symbol of wealth in ancient Belize, petroleum is the twenty-first century equivalent. Although the estimated size of the Spanish Lookout filed is a minuscule ten million barrels, the revenues from the thirty-four hundred barrels currently being pumped each day still make oil the nation’s biggest export.
But numbers can be deceiving. Before that oil can be sold, it must first be stored at Spanish Lookout, trucked a hundred miles to Big Creek, loaded into a barge, and towed all the way to Panama for sale on the world market.
We asked B.N.E.’s Daniel Gutierrez if there isn’t a more efficient way to convert our petroleum to cash.
Daniel Gutierrez, Marketing Mgr., B.N.E.
“There is a way, but not without the volume and I think it is important for everybody to understand that the field that B.N.E. is producing is really a very, very small field and we’ve made that statement on a number of occasions and the question that you ask allows us to bring it forth even more. In a field the size of Spanish Lookout, you really don’t have the volume to put in a pipeline or to put in other kinds of infrastructure that other companies would have. Obviously a pipeline is the most efficient way to get it where it needs to go, however, until you have the volumes that justify a pipeline, you simply can’t put it in.”
And while we keep out fingers crossed for new discoveries to fill that future pipeline, Belize Natural Energy, one of several companies now engaged in exploration countrywide, is hoping for lightning to strike twice.
Daniel Gutierrez
“We have very hopeful. You will speak to a number of different people that have different opinions, however, some geologists that I have spoken to will insist that it’s highly unusual for there to be a small, small field as is the Spanish Lookout field, isolated. Therefore there is a very good possibility that there might be other finds in the area. But we simply have to keep looking and that takes time and very important it takes money and it takes a whole of luck.”
The exhibition sponsored by NICH and B.N.E., runs for six months at the Museum of Belize before going on tour throughout the country. Stewart Krohn for News Five.
Also attending the exhibition opening was Director of the Geology and Petroleum Department, Andre Cho. Cho declined to answer questions, saying that as a public officer he could not speak without official permission. He also cited the fact that he has yet to brief his new boss, Minister of Natural Resources, Florencio Marin. In related news, the nation’s expertise on petroleum matters will soon receive a significant boost. It was announced today by the Office of Governance that Nicola Cho, Andre’s sister and legal counsel in the Ministry of Natural Resources, has been awarded a Commonwealth post-graduate scholarship. She will begin studies in August at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland toward a masters degree in oil and gas law.
