Up until March of 2006 when oil was found in commercial quantities, the history of oil exploration in Belize wasn't worth telling. But now it's a tidy little storyline: a history of failure, a breakthrough moment, and a future full of promise. And now NICH has stepped in to historicize all this. We found out more at the launch of an exhibit about oil in Belize at the Museum of Belize.
Jules VasquezReporting,
These gnarled surfaces are from what's called a button bit - the kind that is attached to an oil drill that goes down hundreds of feet to find oil reservoirs. The exhibit is full of pictures and narratives that explain the science of oil,
the global petroleum industry and the history of exploration in Belize. This list of 50 wells dug over 6 decades, all of them dry, provides a compelling backdrop to the whole story.
Lita Krohn, Director - Houses of Culture
"It didn't happen just like that, there is a history of oil exploration in the country. In fact I heard from 1938 but I know about the 1950s from information my dad was Minister at the time and all the oil companies, Gulf Oil, was one of the first that came to drill then Phillips Petroleum, and then you have Chevron, all these other people and they were drilling and they only came up with dry wells."
And much of the history told here is about failure: wasted money, squandered spirits and dejected multinationals but all of them were connected by a commitment to a singular conviction.
Lita Krohn,
"I just got a phone call from a Mr. Greenwood who is now blind and, I think he is an old geologist, an old British geologist, and he is saying he knew it, we knew there was oil here. Everyone involved in the business has always had this conviction that there was oil somewhere."
And that somewhere is Spanish Lookout where there are now 4 wells producing in commercial quantities for Belize Natural Energy Limited. Krohn says it's a neat historical juncture.
Lita Krohn,
"We were just talking with Ms. Meg and we were talking about logwood and the value that logwood used to have in the 1600s followed by mahogany then sugar was our gold. Well now it is coming to like an industry of oil along with the other industries we have so it is important for us to document it, noh."
And it is easier or less painful - to document this long history of futility because it is now capped off with a glowing success. So, photos that would otherwise have been tossed into the ashbin of history are now resurrected as a valuable prologue to a story with a happy ending.
Lita Krohn,
"All these old pictures are valuable. They've regained their value all of a sudden so lucky for the people that saved the pictures and now they are part of another exciting episode of the 21st Century."
The exhibition will run for 6 months. BNE assisted in putting it together.
