He said that from the onset, the claimants have misunderstood the significance of the Legall judgment, and they’ve gone on a propaganda campaign, much to the detriment of the Belizean people:

Dennys Barrow - Attorney for GOB "I don't know if you saw on the internet the responses immediately following the court's, Justice Legall's decision - there was in the oil industry internationally, a major interruption, major concern. Oil exploration is shut down in Belize - you would have been aware of the letter of one of the oil companies which said that a 60 million dollar fund that they were going to have raised by their bankers was shut down because of the impact of that judgment. So that judgment creates the impression that you cannot do business as an oil explorer in Belize."

Reporter "If the government is where it was to be right now, the oil companies where it wants to be because of this ruling - then why appeal if the declaration by Justice Legall has no bearing on anything?"

Dennys Barrow "Because the government will expose itself to the accusations which have been made which continue to be made and which I'm sure will continue to be made that it is disobeying the order of the Supreme Court - so people who do not understand the order and who do not understand the legal position will say 'but God man - the judge said the thing null and void so how can they make it continue'. So it is to remove that from off the table, to remove that from the public consciousness that the government is duty bound to appeal and to have the law properly declared by the court of appeal."

Daniel Ortiz "The Chief Justice also mentioned that the companies weren't joined in the litigation - he made significance of that - that they weren't injuncted as well."

Audrey Matura - Shepherd - VP, OCEANA, Belize "We keep hearing that as an issue you know and I think that people fail to understand - the companies were at liberty to be part of the matter. They said the government can represent their interest, obviously they were right. You've seen the government in the court batting for them, why would they spend their monies to get attorneys to come to the court and fight this case when tax payers money could be doing it for them, when they have more clout than the oil companies. You think it is easy when the Prime Minister's brother gets up in the court before a judge? Why would they come and try and trump that - that's the best trump card they have."

Dennys Barrow "This again is part of the propaganda spin that Ms. Matura is so very good at and one has to pay for it. She is unceasing in this regard but she needs to appreciate that she does a dis-service to people because she misleads people with these false statements. One or more of the oil companies considered joining as she has testified, but when I think - this is my surmise and I think it's reasonable, when they realize that the case the Ms. Matura Shepherd and her organization had brought was absolutely incapable of impacting them - they then did the sensible thing. This fight doesn't concern me so why should I try to get into it - there is not anything that OCEANA can get out of that claim that they brought that makes it sensible for the oil companies to join in."

So, the situation at this moment is that the Legall judgment has no effect on the Government of Belize, or the 3 oil companies. The oil companies can continue as they have been doing without any uncertainty.

The injunction is lifted, and will remain that way until the Court of Appeal hears the case filed by GOB.