HUGE OIL RUSH IN BELIZE!

THE GOLD RUSH IN BELIZE IS ABOUT OIL!

Around 17 oil exploration companies in Belize now have divided up almost the entire small country of Belize into contracts. The OIL RUSH is on with a vengeance.
There have been blips in the acquisition of oil lease areas. One guy went public during the last PUP administration, claiming he got shafted with his $300,000 usa bribe to the OIL MINISTER via his cut out ( driver chauffer ) as he did not get the oil exploration concession he bribed for. He was given the choice (after paying the chauffer, of a different concession area, he was quoted ). He took the different area though, and was quoted in newspapers that he still thought as bribes go, it was cheap.
That OIL MINISTER is now the leader of the PUP party in OPPOSITION hints the UDP party now controlling the government coffers. The PUP were kicked out of office in the last election for massive CORRUPTION. The worst in the history of Belize. The Guardian newspaper hinted last month that Johnny Briceno was the man who got the bribe, but it was never proved, or taken to court. We the public always wondered which of two PUP OIL Minister´s during that time, was the crook? Needless to say, the voters memories of the CORRUPTION of the PUP are still strong, from when they were last in government and they are not expected to EVER get elected again, while composed of the criminal members of the last administration.
BNE is the oil company who succeeded where others have failed over fifty years. They hit oil on the first strike. So far, oil in Belize seems to be in small lakes. BNE and it´s subsidiaries are reputed to have taken out $300 million usa in oil exports as a gross in the past two years, and have 5 wells working now in the Spanish Lookout field. The debate is on how much we should get from gross revenues. Investigative reporters say we are getting 17%, friends of Belize in Norway say they get 85% and arguments have been put forward locally, that we should get at least 35% of the GROSS sales. The Prime Minister a lawyer is claiming he will not change the oil sharing agreement, but his declaration is met with suspicion by the public, as it is believed BNE are sharing the oil wealth with him, through his law firm legal deals? BNE are also said to have a confirmed commercial new oil lake in the NEVER DELAY area bigger than the one they are now pumping from, and have not yet started pumping there, in NEVER DELAY oil field. 17 other exploration companies are now doing their seismic work in their areas dividing up the country of Belize. The Prime Minister BARROW is saying he expects more finds of lakes of oil under Belize.

Belize is a small country, it is not only oil that is doing good. 5000 Mennonites came to Belize 50 years ago and were struggling to feed themselves, clearing jungle and started the chicken industry with 6 scrawny chickens they bought locally. Through group cooperation, group taxation, a credit union, they have become a dynamo of farming and industrial development in Belize and now worth hundreds of millions of dollars of local currency.

A lot of pioneers have immigrated to what was then the pioneer frontier of Belize and have done very well. The latest was an American called McFee, the VIRUS software multi-millionaire. He is often quoted as stating Belize is an ENTREPRENEURS PARADISE. There are so many development opportunities as to make myself wish I was much younger and an octupus with enough arms to do everything one would like to try and do. For the ambitious and those with technical skills, Belize is definitely the new young persons frontier.