Introduction
Much is being made of the world class calibre of the advisers to the Granger Administration and Minister Raphael Trotman as they construct a path to First Oil in 2020. None of them apparently has told Messrs Granger and Trotman that the first steps should have been the adoption of a Petroleum policy, the urgent revision of the petroleum laws and the establishment of a team of skilled individuals with knowledge, competence, integrity and capacity to engage the oil men.
Oil is of course serious business, involves big dollars and is full of messy, technical details. At the end of the day however, it is about negotiations, understanding one’s strength and exploiting the other person’s weaknesses. Of course, the other side would be doing the same and it will boil down to who has the chips, the guts and the skill. Let us leave the world class experts to advise the Government. We need to get on with our work.
Today’s column sets out the provisions of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act relating to the two licences which operators may apply for. The licences are a Prospecting Licence and a Production Licence, a prerequisite of which is an agreement between an applicant and the Minister under the powers vested and subject to the duties imposed under section 10 of the Act. The Agreement covers both types of licences but each is in turn subject to its own conditions.