Barbados Government Conjures Up Visions Of Winning The Oil Lottery – Just In Time For The Election!
Oil. Money. Fortune.
We’re all rich, don’t you know? Minister Liz Thompson is talking about setting up a national “Petroleum Heritage and Stabilisation Fund” to deal with the billions of dollars of profits that are sure to be flowing our way from all that oil just off our coast. There’s going to be sooooooo much money that we’ll have to take special pains to take care of this legacy for our children and their children.
We had big news coverage of the survey, and now the Barbados media is pumping oil fever to new heights. The story is that international oil firms are being “forced to bid” for the lucrative rights to get a piece of the action. Minister Thompson flew all the way to Texas to talk with the big boys – with Barbados press coverage of her every word, of course. Texas is synonymous with oil money, and if there is one thing that the Barbados Government knows, it is how to put on a stage show. You can’t create that type of drama meeting in a government board room at the PM’s office folks! So off to Texas went our Liz.
Nobody in the Barbados media asked why it was that the Barbados government had to go on a road trip flogging the supposed billions to be made from Bajan oil rights instead of the world beating down our door here on the island.
The truth is that the survey and efforts to auction off oil exploration areas are nothing in comparison to the FEEL GOOD propaganda campaign being engineered by the Barbados Government. Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear again in some different way about how good things are going to be when we tap into that big pool of oil money, how many big oil firms are “interested” and this expert or that expert talking about oil. And then we’ll have one more quote from Minister Thompson about the process.
Government Leaks Own Maps To Generate More Hype
Last weekend, the government itself leaked it’s own maps to the media to generate further excitement. The Nation News responded with a big article about the NAMES of the oil exploration areas. The areas have all been given BAJAN names, don’t ya know! This means that they are ours… making for further excitement, hope and dreams. Two chickens in every pot and two BMWs in every garage.
Hey… the government has even put two areas aside with NO BIDDING. Saving them for future generations they say. THAT generates a bit of excitement too, doesn’t it?
Nobody is asking, “Hey… we’ve been in trouble financially for a decade. If there’s so much easy, high quality oil waiting just off the coast, why didn’t we auction off our oil rights six or seven years ago and get some of that big money heading our way sooner?”
What has changed in the last ten years that has improved the quality, quantity, accessibility and desirability of our supposed oil deposits?
The price of crude has changed, that’s for sure. And that makes oil – accessible, good quality oil – all the more desirable. But what has changed that makes our oil of better quality now than it was in the past? Barbados has had oil exploration and deals before – none of which proved profitable enough to keep the companies here.
While all Bajans hope that new exploration will produce an oil bonanza for Barbados, even if the oil companies are successful it will take many years or even a decade before there could be an appreciable impact upon our economy. The current hype by the government is akin to buying a lottery ticket and starting to brag about what you are going to do with the winnings.
The only appreciable short term benefit of the oil hype is for the election… and folks, this is ALL about the election.
Don’t spend your oil money yet, my friends.
Story Links
Barbados Advocate: Steps being taken to set up Petroleum Heritage and Stabilisation Fund
Nation News: Response from oil bidders “good”
Nation News: These Undersea Fields Our Very Own