By: Staff Writer
January 8, 2021
While Bahamian environmentalists won a court battle, receiving a judicial review on the Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) approval to drill for oil, they did not win the “stay” order putting a halt to the oil drilling in the meantime.
Justice Petra Hanna-Adderley, though, allowed the Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) to continue drilling its first exploratory, called Perseverance One, in waters 90 miles west of Andros after refusing to grant the stay demanded by Waterkeepers Bahamas and the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay.
In a ruling that effectively allows both BPC and its environmental activist opponents to claim victory, the judge said the latter had a “low threshold to meet” to obtain the Supreme Court’s permission for their Judicial Review to proceed. This, Justice Hanna-Adderley found, they have done, and she also ruled they have a “sufficient interest” to bring the action.
In particular, the judge said the activists and their attorney, Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co partner, had made an arguable case that BPC should have obtained site plan approval for its well from the Town Planning Committee under the Planning and Subdivisions Act. This is something the oil explorer appears to have failed to do.
Significantly, Justice Hanna-Adderley also found that the activists had created no disadvantage, or prejudice, to BPC and the Government by seeking to challenge the project’s permits outside the six-month timeframe during which Judicial Review challenges are supposed to be heard under the Supreme Court rules.
This means the Judicial Review will be able to challenge both BPC’s Environmental Authorisation (EA), which the Government granted in February 2020, as well as the first extension to the oil explorer’s licence that was made in April 2020.
Justice Hanna-Weeks, though, did chastise the environmentalists for taking a “wait and see” approach over whether Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment, would make good on his promise not to approve oil exploration in Bahamian waters. She said they should have proceeded with the application for Judicial Review as soon as they saw fit.
Aiden Casey QC, the Government’s lead attorney, said he will come back to the court once he and his team have “digested the ruling” and reviewed the judge’s reasons in full. Mr Smith did not object to the refusal of a stay that would have halted BPC’s oil drilling.
Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) yesterday hailed a Supreme Court verdict that likely removes all obstacles to completion of its first exploratory oil well within the scheduled 45-60 day timeframe.
The oil explorer, in a statement issued last night, argued that Justice Petra Hanna-Adderley’s decision not to grant a “stay” that would have halted its Perseverance One well meant Bahamians will “likely know within four to six weeks whether they are an oil-rich nation”.
While the Supreme Court gave BPC’s opponents permission to proceed with their Judicial Review challenge to the project’s permits and approvals, the hearing on the merits of their claim will likely only take place between February 17-18 at the earliest.
Given that Perseverance One, which has been spud in waters 90 miles west of Andros, started on December 20, 2020, and is estimated to take between 45-60 days to complete, there is every possibility that exploratory drilling will have finished or be near to finishing by the time the court date comes around. The February 17, 2021, date is some 59 days after the drilling started.
Simon Potter, BPC’s chief executive, argued that Justice Hanna-Adderley’s ruling will allow the company, the Government and Bahamian people to soon know whether commercial quantities of extractable oil exist beneath this country’s waters.
While analysis of the results may take slightly longer than the four to six weeks indicated, Mr Potter said: “Today’s court ruling means that the drilling of Perseverance One will continue, in accordance with our licence obligations and consistent with the permits issued to BPC by the Government of The Bahamas.
“Those drilling operations, which have been underway since December 20, 2020, have the well on track to provide results within the 45 to 60-day period the company has consistently advised. It is thus clear now that the environmentalist applicants have failed in their last-minute attempt to interrupt the drilling of Perseverance One and the Government’s legitimate assessment of hydrocarbon resource potential in the southern seas of The Bahamas.”
