New offshore oil exploration licences plans

With the civil war in Libya pushing further back any possibility of an agreement with that country over contested offshore oil exploration rights, news that the government plans to start marketing new licences in June for drilling in Maltese waters may open a new chapter in the history of the island’s oil exploration drive. It all depends on the likely potential of the areas under consideration and, naturally, on the interest expressed in them by international oil companies.

Malta’s oil exploration effort is littered with disappointments but this should in no way stop the government from continuing with its drive in the hope that, someday, perhaps Malta too strikes oil in commercial quantities. Announcing the government’s plan, Resources Minister George Pullicino said they felt the time was right for the move after the industry suffered setbacks from the economic crisis and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. He was quoted saying: “Now that the industry is recovering from the blows it has received, we feel it is time for a road show so we could sell licences for oil exploration in territories that are ours and which have not yet been committed”.

So in this new drive the country will at least be spared the possibility of entering into any long-running dispute over contestation of rights as has been the case with other countries, including Libya, which, as this newspaper has repeatedly said, has treated Malta most humiliatingly on this matter. Promises of collaboration invariably evaporated in the air of the Sahara and now that Muammar Gaddafi is lost in his resolve to destroy his opponents, the likelihood of any breakthrough in the foreseeable future may well be completely written off. Not that there was any possibility it could have happened any time soon before the civil war but the government never seemed to lose hope of the possibility of striking a deal with Col Gaddafi.

The issue over oil exploration had in fact been brought up in a meeting Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had with Col Gaddafi just before the conflict. According to Dr Gonzi, both sides had hoped for a solution to the problem and a technical meeting was scheduled to be held in Libya some weeks later. The country has lost count of the number of meetings held with Libya over oil exploration, a matter that has considerably irritated most Maltese. Quite appropriately, the talks with Libya were at one time likened to a waltz, moving two steps forward and one step back. The irritation is not in the least surprising considering the way Libya treated Malta when it sent its gunboats to drive off a company drilling for oil, on the island’s behalf, in an oil-bearing area some 68 nautical miles southeast of Malta on the Medina Bank in 1980. Both countries had claimed jurisdiction of the site and Col Gaddafi’s action was seen by the Prime Minister of the time, Dom Mintoff, as an action only befitting the worst enemies.

Once again, Libya is now contesting another area in the south. Malta has been calling for joint exploration with both Libya and Tunisia but, so far, there has been no tangible progress in this direction. And there does not seem to be any breakthrough in talks with Italy over exploration either.

All this therefore makes the latest news about the government’s plan to sell new offshore oil exploration licences most interesting.