Energy prospects

In the third part of a series of articles, former foreign minister Alex Sceberras Trigona explores the world of oil exploration and electoral campaigning. From The Times:

The same governmental silence prevailing over what is happening to the licences, granted in the North and East of Malta to MedOil and to Global/RWE respectively, also shrouds what is happening to the licences south of Malta...All pointers therefore suggest preparations for a huge public relations exercise during the forthcoming electoral campaign, instead of securing firm commitments. One wonders, after all, whether MedOil could have got away without "dropping" its licence by adopting similar diplomatic wording with a "farm-in operator"!

It might be far better for Malta's bargaining strength to sub-divide existing blocks into Malta-sized plots. Over the past three decades the United Kingdom, Norway and Denmark have all been granting licences on plots of 100 square kilometres each, thus Global's area would have been subdivided into 30 plots and MOG's into 50 plots. Especially now that much more geological information has been accumulated by the government over nearly 50 years of exploration, licencees may be given the right to choose where to drill a first well, but relinquishment of the rest of the block or blocks cannot be as slow as envisaged under the present relinquishment terms. It should aim to be simultaneous with production. Why should a licencee having a number of blocks keep the rest of, say, 5,000 square kilometres of Malta's continental shelf "frozen" while only one singular solitary drill is in production?..

..Above all else, Maltese youth must be much better prepared to handle oil matters. This is advisable not only to administer our own oil fields better but because we could again be in a position to offer petroleum servicing to neighbouring Libya as we used to do in the 1970s and 1980s. When I was councillor of the American University of Cairo (AUC) our Wardija branch was then a most sought after post-graduate school in petroleum studies. Malta needs re-establishing a Petroleum Studies Centre to train petroleum engineers, petroleum accountants, petroleum geologists, petroleum diplomats and petroleum lawyers. Whether this will be done by the government directly or through the University, without partners or with a foreign university or universities in a joint venture, it must be done immediately. Time is of the essence.

Read Dr Sceberras Trigona's complete series of 3 articles (pdf) - Malta's Energy Prospects(1); Malta's Energy Prospects(2); Malta's Energy Prospects(3).