And, referring to one other swipe McCaffrey took at government, she claimed that when he was here, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning strongly cautioned government against the tax regime it was taking up. Manning is the regional authority on oil production, as his country is the biggest oil and natural gas producer in CARICOM. And here's what McCaffrey says he had to tell government.
Sheila McCaffrey,
"The government of Belize asked a petroleum expert to come from Trinidad. Trinidad has a hundred years of experience producing large scale oil and gas and they are making comparisons with our drop in the bucket, as Susan said, of ten million barrels and they are comparing it to hundreds of millions of barrels and a hundred year history. As I understand it the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago was actually here and his recommendation to the government of Belize was, 'stop, please please think seriously about what you're doing.'"
Jules Vasquez,
Has the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago cautioned the government of Belize against this taxation regime?
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
"I have no idea of what Ms. McCaffrey is talking about. I did not meet Prime Minister Manning on this trip and certainly the Prime Minister has not indicated anything to me. The Foreign Minister also did not indicate to me anything to me that they had any such discussion."
The debate between Belize Natural Energy and government will continue as principals from Belize Natural Energy will take their argument to the House committee level.
As regards the statistics for oil production, Belize Natural Energy has exported 344,000 barrels of oil to the United States, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador. 8% of all sales, or 24,000 barrels have been made to local Belizean businesses. Calculate that at US$60 dollars a barrel and you've got sales of more than US$20 million. Despite this, Belize Natural Energy says that once costs are factored in, it only gets $28 a barrel and adds that because of ongoing investment, it has not made a profit yet on Spanish Lookout as, it claims, all revenues are re-invested.
