By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A LEADING Carnival Corporation executive says the group is not at all concerned about the proposed multi-billion dollar oil refinery project by Oban Energies in East Grand Bahama and does not believe it would interfere with their proposed new cruise port development on the island.

Giora Israel, Carnival’s senior vice president of global port and destination development, told The Tribune the land where the port will be built is not in close proximity to the proposed Oban project.

Carnival Corporation on Monday evening unveiled plans to build one the largest cruise ports in the world in Grand Bahama. The company plans to lease 329 acres of land at Sharp Rock, somewhere near the University of the Bahamas in the eastern part of the island.

Early last year, the government announced it had signed a Heads of Agreement with Oban Energies, which proposed to develop a $5.5 billion oil refinery and storage terminal on some 200 acres of Crown land, east of Stat Oil. The government’s initial agreement with Oban sparked intense criticism, including points of opposition from several environmental organisations who took issue with the lack of an environmental impact assessment, given the project’s risk factors. The government has now decided to renegotiate the terms of the agreement with Oban. Officials said an EIA has been completed, however, it has not been released to the public. 

When asked by The Tribune during a meeting with the press at the Foster B Pestaina Hall on Tuesday morning whether Carnival felt the proposed Oban project would impact their port project, Mr Israel said: “I am not very familiar with the Oban project; I am familiar that we are far away from wherever it was proposed; we are 20 miles away. So, I don’t know much more than reading a little bit in some of the newspapers about it.

“I don’t know what stage it is, but the location we now have is very close to where the population is, and it is actually near to a protected area that is to the west of us,” said Mr Israel of the new cruise port which is expected to be built and open by October 2021.

“So, whatever they (Oban) will do, it is far out there. We are not concerned at all,” he said.

The new cruise port when completed will able to accommodate two 6,000-passenger cruise ships, and a crew of 2,000 at the same time, Mr Israel said. It was revealed that of the 329 acres of land leased by Carnival, 110 would be preserved as a natural wetland.

Mr Israel noted Carnival is committed to ensuring it improves places where it has been.

“Our CEO Arnold Donald coined the phrase, which he keeps repeating, that we intend to come to places and leave them as good or better than we found them - that is our commitment; this is what we do,” he said.

He estimates that the project will cost about $100 million dollars to build.

“We do not have a definitive budget but we will have more definitive budgets by March, April, or May. It may take three to four months to come up with a budget,” he added.

When asked about taxes and fees, Mr Israel said the company will pay government departure tax of $18 per passenger regardless. “That is the fee charged by the government of the Bahamas. If we come to Nassau we pay an extra fee for Nassau, and a fee for Freeport. And when you come to our port you pay us a separate fee,” he explained.

“Every one of our ports have to be a profitable enterprise because it is business, and it needs to cover its cost and make a profit. When we manage ports, we manage them so that they are profitable by a small margin, but mainly to serve us to be able to bring people.”