With the discovery of oil in the Spanish Lookout area, government has been scrambling to stay on top of the nascent oil industry. And led by Belize Natural Energy, the industry has been moving fast. 8 months after striking oil, BNE has exported $33,000 barrels of sweet crude to a refinery in Houston, a sale valued at US$2 million. Now government has appointed the petroleum advisory board to make sure government keeps up with the industry to harness Belize's most promising and profitable natural resource.
The nine member board is made up of 5 public sector and 4 private sector representatives, with an ex-officio expert advisor. No chair has been named, but the members are: CEO in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ismael Fabro; Financial Secretary Dr. Carla Barnett; CEO in the Ministry of National Development; Hugh O'Brien; CEO in the Ministry of Public Utilities Cresencio Sosa; Director of Petroleum Andre Cho. And from the private sector, attorney Andrew Marshalleck, George Soca, Lennox Neal and Vice-President of Belize Holdings Eamon Courtenay. They will be advised by expert on petroleum sector management Ramanathan Ramanathan.
According to a government release, the first thing that the board will do is review current exploration contracts, and make recommendations to government for, "the improvement of revenue generation for the benefit of Belizeans." Presently, the government gets a 7% royalty and BNE keeps 93%, a disproportionate agreement, particularly when one considers that for example, in the North Sea, royalties to Norway are more than 70%.
