It has been battling government and a multinational oil company, and tonight, SATIIM can declare victory in the first round. This afternoon Justice Sam Awich delivered a preliminary decision in the case of SATIIM versus the Forestry Department and U.S. Capital Energy. As we've reported, attorneys for SATIIM senior counsels Dean Barrow and Lois Young have asked the court for leave to apply for judicial review of government's decision to permit seismic testing in the national park. Awich rejected SATIIM's first two grounds. But allowed two others: namely that the permission which the government granted violates the National parks act, and the environmental protection act.
With that, he granted a stay of the permit, and also granted an injunction against seismic testing. Again, this ruling only finds that there are arguable cases on these points but there's no certainty that SATIIM will win them when they go for full hearing in mid-July. But it's an interim victory for SATIIM and a crushing and costly blow for U.S. Capital Energy and the Ministry of Natural resources. We spoke to both sides for their reaction. First, Alistair King, the local representative for U.S. Capital Energy.
Jules Vasquez,
Do you see this as a great and consequential loss?
Alistair King, U.S. Capital Energy
"Well I see it as a problem that the government has to resolve with us because we are working under the PSA awarded to us by them and so they'll have to deal with the costs now. so until I speak to our attorney now to see what our next plan will be, I can't really answer that. But yeah this is a blow to us, we wanted to get on with this job and its also going to be a blow to the district because all these jobs are not going to be forthcoming right now."
Jules Vasquez,
Will the government have to compensate you, your company foreseeably?
Alistair King,
"Well I have to check with our attorneys and see how we...I guess we going to have to go through this full fledge court case."
Jules Vasquez,
How costly might this be for U.S. Capital Energy?
Alistair King,
"Well I think we have US$1.6 million invested already. I think its about US$7,500 a day to have the company on hold."
Jules Vasquez,
The entire block is over 500,000 acres, this is about 10% of that or about 8%, 41,000 acres we are talking about, how much will this affect you being unable to work?
Alistair King,
"Well like I said we can work outside the park but in seismic you like to complete one line at a time, not do half or quarter and then go back and do the rest so its an awkward thing. Its not that we can't keep doing that but it doesn't work that way. You need to set out your line and complete it."
Jules Vasquez,
The local representative is saying its going to cost a lot of jobs, its going to cost the company a lot of money, and it may end up costing government, i.e. the taxpayers, a lot of money if government has to compensate them for a faulty production sharing agreement.
Lois Young, Attorney for SATIIM
"You know what, I don't accept that its going to cost the government a penny because U.S. Capital was the one who applied for its permits. U.S. Capital should have had legal advice to advise it how to proceed. This is not the fault
of the government that they did not apply and get legal advice on what kind of permits they needed and who should sign the permits. You can't pin that on the government of Belize. So I think that that is just crying wolf on the part of U.S. Capital Energy."
Jules Vasquez,
Who is the winner and who is the loser here?
Lois Young,
"Winner or loser, I think SATIIM is definitely the winner because the ground that Justice Awich left in is a very strong ground. You cannot get over the hurdle of the fact that the national parks system act does not allow for seismic testing. You know what, there are other companies drilling all over Belize and if the great U.S. can take care of Alaska and leave the oil reserves there because of environmental concerns, what about Belize. We have a country where I think every part of Belize is already subscribed to for oil exploration.
(The) bottomline is if government wants to do seismic testing in a national park, de-reserve it, it's a political decision they need to make instead of trying to hide behind the coattails of the court."
Both sides have two weeks to make filings, and a preliminary hearing will be held on June 29th, with a full hearing on July 19th.
