MP demands action over oil exploration

Labour MP Anglu Farrugia said yesterday that it was shameful that the government was not taking an effective role in oil exploration even though studies showed good potential in two areas around Malta.

Dr Farrugia said in an adjournment speech in Parliament that Pancontinental Oil and Gas and other companies were saying that there was recoverable oil potential of 455 million barrels at what was known as the Chianti Prospect and 968 million barrels at the Lumincello Prospect. Exploration in these areas would not be affected by any border issues with other countries.

Dr Farrugia said he was surprised that Resources Minister Ninu Zammit in reply to a parliamentary question had only said that the areas which he had referred to were not oil wells but areas where there was a chance that oil or gas could be struck in commercial qualities when drilling was made.

That, Dr Farrugia said, was obvious, but what the people wanted to know was what the government was doing about them.

The government was sleeping over this issue but the people should know that the oil was there, because this was something which the government would probably start talking about as the election approached, after having done nothing about it earlier.

Much the same applied to the building of wind farms, where action was being taken now, after EU prompting, when much could have been done sooner.