@ColumbusPillow, where you from bro? Are you another British get-rich-quick artist posing as a concerned Bahamian? Are you a BPC troll like "Bahama7"? I bet you are actually the same person... The BPC shell company can only afford one troll. 🤣

How wo of you know about public opinion in the Bahamas? You are a BPC troll who lives in the UK.

@Porcupine, listen - if the best they gat is to wheel out James Smith, the 'local' board member to defend them, this is already over. They have NO IDEA what they are up against in the form of Fred Smith.

BPC7 mussee pass out...

Lol an adversary on oil drilling? Well it couldn't be on any other issue. That is the only thing you have every commented on Isle-of-Man7. It is your reason for existence. You know that its possible to see everyone's comment history, right? Just admit that you are a troll sent by BPC. Its ok - everybody knows.

rtainly not in a country that is among the most vulnerable on the planet to the ravages of climate change, which the oil industry is largely responsible for.

I would ask James Smith to seek to educate himself more thoroughly on the industry which he has chosen to champion before offering further public remarks on an issue that could ruin countless Bahamian lives. And, I would ask him to speak next time as a Bahamian first, and a shareholder in a foreign for-profit oil company second.

BPC director is ‘shockingly uninformed’

Save The Bays chairman takes James Smith to task over oil drilling comments

statement
By Joseph Darville
STB Chairman

There are so many things wrong with the recent published statements by James Smith regarding oil exploration that it is difficult to know where to begin. I will not say he is being disingenuous or intentionally misleading, but as a director of a company proposing to undertake the extremely dangerous action of drilling into our sea-floor in search of oil, he does seem to be shockingly uninformed.

Smith uses the trick of choice for Bahamas Petroleum Company directors nowadays: Why complain about drilling, when there are other oil-related activities taking place in the country?

While Save The Bays certainly opposes the transportation of petrochemicals through our waters, the argument that since we already face some level of danger, we might as well go ahead and increase it exponentially, is ridiculous on the face of it.

Furthermore, Smith is drawing a false equivalence, comparing apples and oranges, as the level of danger in what BPC is proposing utterly dwarfs any tanker accident imaginable.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster spewed around 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The vast majority of tankers in operation today carry between 15 and 25 million gallons at full capacity. This means that, at minimum, eight to thirteen of these massive vessels would have to suffer a catastrophic accident and spew their entire contents into the sea – all at the same time – in order to replicate the impact of a major spill from an offshore drill site.

Smith’s suggestion that these tankers present a greater spill risk is misleading in the extreme. It is just downright wrong. The Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster led to a massive stretch of ocean (15,300 sq. miles) – an area nearly THREE times the size of the entire The Bahamas (5,358 sq. miles) – being covered by toxic chemical sludge. The worst possible tanker disaster would not even come close. All spills are very bad, but not all spills are equal!

Perhaps most frightening is Smith’s suggestion that we shouldn’t worry about the drill project, as is nothing more than an exploratory well. Can this BPC director really not be aware that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was also “just” an exploratory well? Can he not know that exploratory wells are among the most dangerous of all the petrochemical disasters waiting to happen?

The truth is that there is no such thing as safe oil drilling and we have too much to lose in this country to bet everything on a roll of the dice. Our economy is totally dependent upon industries derived from the beauty and abundance of our fragile marine environment.

Nothing about the BPC deal suggests that it will even come close to providing us with an alternative – certainly not with oil prices crashing and the world moving further away from fossil fuels by the day.

I think you should slow down before claiming some kind of victory over these nonsense comments by smith.

You been drinking hey Britain7? Check out all the name calling and insults!

You are a BPC troll. You are not fooling anybody. You have never commented on this website other than to defend this shameful get-rich-quick plan by a group of foreigners who think we are nothing more than drum beating, grass-skirt wearing 'natives'. You think this won't make it to court? My friend, you have no idea who you are up against now.