Editorial

It is extraordinary that a Labour MP has not been seriously challenged, in and out of Parliament, over a string of claims he made about oil exploration during the budget debate on the votes of the Ministry of Resources and Infrastructure.

The minister's response in Parliament to the member's claims was weak, to put it mildly, and the fact that the member has been practically allowed to go free, as it were, speaks volumes of the way the country treats such an important matter as oil exploration.

The cynic may of course have a different interpretation of the indifferent attitude shown to the claims made, but leaving cynicism aside, the MP, Joe Mizzi, deserves to be challenged with all the vigour that could be mustered. When Malta has to rely on oil imports for its energy and when it will take years for an attempt made at tapping renewable energy to start contributing to the energy supply, prospects of finding oil are not to be taken lightly.

Up to now, all the attempts made at finding oil in commercial quantities, onshore and offshore, have ended in disappointment. At one time, the drive had even led to a serious squabble with Libya over drilling in an offshore area in the south. Libya had gone so far as sending gunboats to the Medina Bank to drive off an Italian company holding a Maltese concession there.

Since then, the effort at finding oil had gone on in different offshore areas, including in a concession close to a profitable Italian oilfield. Attempts are also being made for joint exploration with neighbouring countries in the south but up to now Malta has not struck oil in commercial quantities.

Staking his own membership of the House, Mr Mizzi said there was undeniable proof of the presence of oil in Maltese waters and that the problem was how to get to it.

Once he is saying that the problem is how to get to it, Mr Mizzi is giving the impression that he knows for sure that there is oil in commercial quantities. For, obviously, he is well aware of the fact that finding oil is not enough, the find has to be of commercial quantity to make drilling a feasible proposition.

But then Mr Mizzi made a very serious claim; there had been enough pressure in the latest Gozo oil well to raise the oil, but the people were denied of the resultant prosperity because that was what suited some quarters. According to Mr Mizzi, the main stumbling block over the Gozo oil well had been one of commissions. He argued that things had been badly done and no investigation had ever been carried out. There were interested parties who knew there was oil and would come back under a Labour government.

The allegation merits more than the reply given to the MP by the minister, Ninu Zammit, who told him that if he could produce anything in writing about the claims, they would be investigated. Yet again, the allegation is of such serious nature, and the existence of oil in commercial quantities in Gozo would be of such immense importance to the economy of Malta that Mr Mizzi ought to be challenged to say all he knows about the matter in Parliament.

Oil exploration is a matter of national interest and the Labour MP is in duty bound to reveal to the country anything he knows about what had gone wrong in the case of the Gozo oil well so that an investigation would be held if there are grounds for it.