Permission has been given for oil exploration to begin on the Saba Bank:
Exploration for crude oil on the Saba Bank, the largest submarine atoll (coral island) in the Atlantic Ocean, has moved a step forward with the board of Saba Bank Petroleum Resource N.V. taking the decision to allow Emerald Petroleum, a small oil drilling company, to begin the search.
About one-third of the Saba Bank lies within Saba territorial waters, 12-nautical-mile (22 km) zone, while the remaining two thirds fall within the limits of the Economic Fisheries Zone (EFZ) of the Netherlands Antilles.
The Saba Bank company, headed by parliamentarian William Johnson, met on St. Maarten Saturday. Ahead of the meeting, Johnson told the press the decision of the board would be a positive one so the work can start.
The decision of the board has to be followed up by the shareholders of the Saba Bank – the Central Government and the Lt. Governors of Saba, St. Maarten, and St. Eustatius. The three islands have equal shares in the company, which was started in 1975.
Johnson said the Saba Bank company had asked several other large oil exploration companies to consider exploring the bank, but these have not shown interest in the job. With oil price continuing to increase, and new sources of oil being sought, the Saba Bank is seen as ripe for exploration.
Read the full article at the Daily Herald.
Previously on Green Antilles, Biodiversity of Saba Bank collection.
[Photo: Nicholas Laughlin]
As a descendent of Sabans and Statians who see those two natural gems as important ecosystems that should not be threatened by the current oil drilling compulsion, I say, “Be careful what you propose to do to our mother earth.” We certainly don’t have to look far to see what human greed has wrought in the Gulf of Mexico. Our dear “Unspoiled Queen” of Saba will no longer be unspoiled. What does this generation of Sabans want as their legacy to their children and grandchildren? Please move with utmost caution and with the greatest regard for the treasure that is the natural state of the Saba Bank.
Not too long ago I read with great interest and pride of the discovery of a number of new marine species that were found by scientists on the Saba Bank. This area has been noted as a rich unique marine ecosystem, and perhaps there are still many more species unknown to man/science to be found there. Is oil drilling really necessary there? or is it just being fueled by the greed for money which is slowly destroying our environments and eventually our mother earth? We know of how fragile these Caribbean ecosystems are, especially the marine ones. We shouldn’t let greedy foreigners come to our Caribbean and flash a few dollars in our faces then destroy our natural treasures. We will the the first to suffer, and they would simply turn their backs and leave us holding the really dirty end of the stick with no means of cleaning it up.
Need I also refer to the tragedy which unfolded before our eyes recently with the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico? Accidents can and do happen. Can we cope with such a dilemma in these little islands?
I trust that the decision would be one that considers the natural environment and the people of the region far above all other financial considerations
From what I understood, there was test drilling done on the Saba Banks back in the 1980′s which proved that the oil found there was very high in Sulpher and so of too low a quaility to deem extractable, at the time.
Also what gives the Antillian Government the right to seek domain over the entire Saba Bank area, as it falls within our countries terriotorial boundries and then there is the issue of Venezuala laying claim to Bird Island and thus the Saba Bank that surrounds it.
We need to worry about food security and the impact it would have on Tourism and bio diversity, rather than the monetary gains it would make the handful of poeple involved.
Should it proceed, there are many examples from around this oil addicted world of this toxic, cancer causing substance, bringing mayhem to the enviorment and people of our planet, in many differant ways. This is the time for advancing our sustainable energy needs not digging another hole for our civilization to fall into.