"Government…is not entertaining sale of its shares of the oil revenues of BNE in Spanish Lookout." That's what an article in today's edition of The Belize Times says. The article confirms that Belize Natural Energy proposed a sale arrangement to government. Of that, the article says: "government saw the proposal, and that's it." We note that it does not say that government rejected the proposal.
Sounds like a semantic point but one we need make, because government sometimes works in mysterious ways. And proof of that is in the article itself where the PUP paper denounces its own Government Press Office for sending out a release that it says only confused matters more.
Of course, what the article does not address, but what the government cannot deny is that the proposed value of the 10% equity is the same as Universal's government guaranteed indebtedness to the Belize Bank.
Also on Monday when Jules Vasquez spoke to the Prime Minister in a telephone interview he agreed that government was considering offering the 10% for sale to the Belizean public. When asked if the proceeds from that sale could not forseeably be used to settle the debt to the Belize Bank, he said, "money is fungible," which means that it is interchangeable, kinda like a high tech way of saying "everything is everything".
And while holding unto the 10% is one thing, 7NEWS is reliably informed government is in a active dispute with Belize Natural Energy about its 10% participation in other oil fields. BNE's position is that government has a 10% stake in all the oil exploration ventures, including dry wells. And that stake means having to pay 10% of the drilling and exploration costs as well.
Government is saying that it only has that stake in the fields it expresses interest in. The point has become critical because under BNE's interpretation government would have to pay 10% of exploratory costs at Eagle One, a dry well outside of Belmopan. Government believes that under the agreement with BNE it is not obligated to do so. But government, we are told, is very eager to participate in the emerging oil field in Ontario Village which appears very promising.
It's a troublesome sticking point and until it is resolved government's relations with BNE will continue to be prickly.
