"It's oil‚ It's Gas‚ and It's Burning!" - this is what the Maltese dream to read one day when and if Malta strikes black gold. We have already had several unlucky‚ exploration programmes that did not yield a single drop.
Mr Hein Chetcuti (The Sunday Times, November 13) wrote that Malta's oil exploration efforts have suddenly ground to a halt. This is because the government has asked the interested parties - Australian company Pancontinental Oil and Gas and its drilling farmee Anadarko (a US oil drilling Fortune 500 company) to hold the project for six months until it finalises negotiations related to disputed territorial waters with bordering countries, probably Libya, Tunisia and Italy.
The stalemate was confirmed in Parliament on January 9 by Resources Minister Ninu Zammit, who, answering a Parliamentary Question by Labour's Adrian Vassallo, explained that talks are being held with neighbouring countries on the delineation of the continental shelf.
During a previous Budget speech then Finance Minister John Dalli had mentioned a projected initiative that would see a joint Maltese-Libyan initiative in oil exploration technology. It was understood at the time that the Libyans had the expertise that would help Malta's efforts.
The recent agreement reached between Australia and East Timor should serve as an example to Malta's and Libya's oil exploration efforts within these disputed areas. On January 12, the foreign ministers of Australia and East Timor signed a treaty allowing their countries to share billions of dollars in revenue from oil and natural gas reserves beneath the sea that divides them.
The agreement will see the realisation of a multi-billion dollar energy project called Greater Sunrise‚ that will bring revenues of up to $4 billion to minnow East Timor over the duration of the liquefied natural gas project and up to $14.5 billion over 20 years.
The agreement took months to reach. However the result will bring prosperity to both countries, irrelevant of their size. There was no bullying - both countries sought to get the best out of the wealth that lies beneath their seas. Australia and East Timor also agreed to shelve a long-running dispute over the Timor Sea mari-time boundary that separated them for 50 years.