Last night we showed you the downright “chancey” terms contained in the July 24th. production sharing agreements for two local companies ZMT and BCH. The companies are owned by a trio of well connected Independence businessmen and the terms are most disadvantageous to the public interest. One man that knows something about those agreements is John Briceno. He was the Minister of Natural Resources up until June fourth when he resigned in relation to the Universal Health Care situation.
But before he did that Briceno did initiate negotiations with BCH and ZMT. But today he said that the terms he proposed to cabinet were far different from the ones that were finally agreed to. And in fact he only came to know what his successor Florencio Marin had signed unto when he heard about it yesterday after the UDP press conference.
Jules Vasquez,
Would you say from your recollection, were the terms contained in the June 5th Cabinet paper, a meeting which you did not attend, but papers which I would imagine you prepared to submit for Cabinet, were those terms similar to the ones that were revealed to the press yesterday which are very unfavorable for the national interest?
Hon. Johnny Briceno, Former Minister of Natural Resources
“No, I did not make those recommendations.”
Jules Vasquez,
Sir do you know if Cabinet ratified at its meeting of June 5th those recommendations that were sent in?
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“I don’t know.”
Jules Vasquez,
Certainly you would agree that 1.5% on the first 25,000 barrels and 2.5% on the next 25,000 barrels - topping out at 15% on anything above 225,000 barrels, certainly you would agree that those terms are not in the direction in which you all were trying to take the production sharing averages?
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“Well from the mere fact that I made a different recommendation would answer your question and if that would have come to me afterwards, whether I would be prepared to support the 1.5%, I simply would not be able to support it.”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
[October 17th, 2007] “Look, these things represent potentially a tremendous loss to the people of this country. Briceno, Marin, and Said Musa need to tell us what the hell is going on.”
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“I was no longer the Minister after June the 4th and my recommendations were different to the Cabinet and to what the present Minister signed or whatever, I cannot be held accountable for that. I understand now that one of the principals from Lagoon Resources has been making some serious allegations and I will take care of that through my attorney. I was not aware of that letter until yesterday that the Leader of the Opposition made copies of that letter available to the public.”
And 7NEWS has obtained the Cabinet documents which show the proposal and indeed as Briceno said it’s very different from what government signed to on July 24th. The Cabinet confidential shows a proposal for both companies starting out at 20% for 5,000 barrels, and going up to 40% for more than 30 thousand barrels which, indeed is better than what Lagoon Resources was offering.
And it’s far, far better than what is contained in the July 24th PSA. That starts out at a production share of 1.5% for 25 thousand barrels and ends at just 15% for anything over 225 thousand barrels. In fact the difference is so vast it can hardly be credibly compared. But that’s what it is…and so why did the successor minister of natural resources move so far away from what his predecessor had recommended?
Well, a release from the Ministry of Natural Resources today said that the PSA’s were styled off what was already in existence – which - we’ll add – is basically the BNE agreement – negotiated from a position of weakness – before oil was discovered in belize.
According to the release, the new model PSA’s were approved by Cabinet a month after those ZMT and BCH PSA’s were signed. But Briceno told us today – that as minister, he was also holding off on the signing of those PSA’s waiting for the new model to come in – a restraint that apparently was later abandoned.
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“We felt that we needed to update the production sharing agreement. That is why we were not signing the production sharing agreements even though the Cabinet had already approved the application for some of these companies. We simply said let us wait some more and as soon as the recommendation comes from the Commonwealth Secretariat, then we will use that model for you to sit down and to sign those agreements.”
Again it’s a developing story and more info keeps coming in and we promise to follow up tomorrow.
