By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

AN environmentalist yesterday urged the Government to deny the Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) the necessary approvals, arguing that oil drilling "is the last thing this country needs".

Sam Duncombe, reEarth's president, called on the Minnis administration to "step into the light" and instead embrace renewable energy. "They need to deny this application," she charged. "The last thing this country needs is oil drilling.

"If, God forbid, they let them go ahead and drill, and there is an oil spill, who is going to clean that up?" queried Mrs Duncombe, pointing to the infamous Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico.

She continued: "We should be pushing ahead with renewables. Getting into an industry like this, where we have Clifton haemorrhaging oil every day, how can we be assured that there will be the necessary oversight? For anyone who believes that if they find oil here, that oil is going to be cheaper for The Bahamas, I have about three bridges to sell them.

"That oil will be taken to a refinery and sold back to us at market prices. We will get no better deal. It's the same thing when they talk about Shell coming here with LNG. By the time BPL tacks on VAT and the legacy debt that BEC has, we will be paying the same price that we're paying right now."

Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC), which has spent more than a decade on its exploration project, recently confirmed it has "lodged an application for Environmental Authorisation" with the Ministry of the Environment and Housing over its plans to drill a first well in waters south-west of Andros.

Simon Potter, BPC's chief executive, told Tribune Business yesterday that the submission was another "step" in the process to 'spudding' its first well, having taken two years to complete the work.

He also described BPC's prospects of discovering commercial quantities of extractable oil as "the best I've seen", based on the company's $100 million investment to-date in obtaining seismic data and 'de-risking' the project.

BPC is currently working on a 'parallel track', which involves obtaining the necessary environmental approvals from the Government at the same time as it seeks to secure a 'farm in', or joint venture, partner to share the financial and technical burden of drilling that first exploratory well.

BPC's submission was made in accordance with the Petroleum (Offshore Environmental Protection and Pollution Control) Regulations 2016, and its application will now be scrutinised by both the Ministry and the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission.

Obtaining the required 'Authorisation' was described by BPC as "the first step in commencing offshore field activity", with Mr Potter branding it as "the in-depth part" of the company's environmental compliance.