Even as two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states – Guyana and Suriname – wait to reap the returns of their new-found oil and gas deposits, another member country, The Bahamas, continues to face a resolute environmental pushback from pressure groups that insist that the waters that have long been a major contributing factor to the country’s world-class tour-ism industry should not be despoiled by continued oil searches and perhaps, eventually, oil recovery.
What continues to be a vigorous lobby, however, did not prevent the Baha-mas Petroleum Company (BPC) from undertaking the drilling of an explo-ratory well between December last year and February this year though it transpires that the pursuit has failed to turn up commercially viable reserves.
