Only an idiot government would even contemplate ANY form of drilling for oil, exploratory or otherwise, in our Bahamas. This government has been guilty of so many travesties during its pathetic tenure, we can only hope and pray that it will see the light and stop this proposed madness.

But still not even a peep from Minnis as public anger grows.

Nope, not a word from Minnis, nor any of our other well educated Ministers.

Lets assume they find oil.

The plug it with concrete and apply for a production license.

Say the Bahamas determines "this is all just too risky" and "hey, maybe stopping climate change is good"

But its plugged with concrete...

Which will not last forever in the deep sea

So you find oil, and it is coming up one way or the other via drilling or a concrete crack or leak in time (lot of pressure down there)

So this is all a very bad idea and commits the Bahamas 100% to either oil disaster in time or commercial drilling if you were to find oil with no real room left for anyone to debate the wisdom of oil drilling or not. Its highly coercive to do it this way, it limits options severely once you find a deposit.

We're quite good at limiting our options.

Like the Bahamas can handle any Oil disaster on the Ocean. Barely could keep the power on and the garbage dump from catching fire. Playing around with the only draw the country has, its beautiful waters, for a few million dollars. Talk about dumb.

You are missing the bigger picture. The international cry-baby organizations won't allow us to defend our country from invaders. Immigration has insufficient resources and authority to enforce laws limiting jobs to Bahamians only, where appropriate. We can't afford to put pictures on work permits. Then only way to defend the Bahamas and keep it for Bahamians, is to destroy the economy completely so that nobody wants to come here.

We have to stay here, because no other country will accept us as refugees.
So, in that way, the Bahamas will be kept for Bahamians - which is a good thing.

Not only would the Bahamas be held liable by the U.S. and forced to pay -- but the U.S. would be responsible for the clean up as well (since the Bahamas lack the technology and equipment to clean up an oil spill). As a result, the U.S. would have the right to force the Bahamas to pay the U.S. for the clean up expenses too.

"...and caused an unprecedented and as yet untold level of damage to marine life." How come it's as yet untold? Could there simply be nothing to tell?

My goodness. Why so much negativity? Look on the positive side of this issue. We need to diversify our economy. It is dependence on tourism that has put us in the present crisis.

How many oil spills do you hear about in Norway related to drilling in the North Sea? Zero.

We will use the state of the art technologies to reduce the risk of spillage. The quantity of oil and gas in our territorial waters would transform our nation for all time to come. Please do not let the naysayers and the unbelievers try to put negativity in your minds concerning this issue of oil. Let’s go for it. Full speed ahead.

"We will use...........?." Who are you, Topdude?
Did you notice that the world is in crisis?
Because of tourism?
Get a slight grip on reality, dude.
The intelligent world has agreed that we need to move away from oil. Those, like you are stuck in the information of last century. A true leader.

Norway has lots of spills so has the North Sea, all oil drilling rigs spill oil.... all the time, it goes with the territory.

Norway doesn't have "lots of spills", nor do other countries in the North Sea. The record over 50 years is excellent, even in a turbulent environment. Much has been learned and those best practices will be applied in the Bahamas. Until Norway found oil it was a relatively poor nation of fishermen. Now it is rich, with a sturdy social safety net.

AND Someone just told me a while ago that the so-called oil people/company might just be looking for aragonite which they can easily gather and ship to wherever and thereby make billions of $s... and when they are tired of making money, simply discontinue searching and say that no oil was found... Wow!!!

Not long until we start drilling and pay off the government debt.