And while there may be some criticism from the public about reviving PetroCaribe, the PM says it could work in Belize's favor, in terms of lowering the cost of fuel.
But what about the possibility of Belize's offshore oil? Well, you've heard Oceana say no to seismic testing and offshore oil drilling. But the PM has said - repeatedly - that GOB isn't planning to drill for oil, nor has government made made any concrete plans to conduct seismic testing. But he has insisted that if they do proceed with that process, it will only be for leveraging purposes, to get larger countries or NGO's to pay Belize to keep the oil there.
Sounds like a plan, but how did the PM come up with it? Well, not from observing any other countries, since he said he doesn't know any others who have attempted this and benefited from it.
Reporter:
"Your people are doing the research PM, can you give one example of a country that has benefitted from having oil and not extracting it?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"No I can't tell you about that, I can tell you about Belize. Our plan, as I said, is that we are known as being a country that has protected its natural resources and I am saying from our perspective, what is it we want to do if we get to the point where there is, there could be potentially oil in our exclusive economic zone, again, not by the barrier reef, we can take that and leverage it and take it to the other countries or to these international NGO's and say, okay, we will leave it there but pay us for it so that we can use that money to be able to fight poverty, to create opportunities for Belizeans, to start to develop this country on a direct path of sustainable development which the PUP stands for."
