News Amandala newspaper Princess and Treaty En

Princess and Treaty Energy oil and gas exploration area covers 2 million acres

Two major international companies, Princess Group International (through Princess Petroleum Limited in Belize) and Treaty

Energy Corporation, headquartered in Texas, USA, have entered into a joint venture agreement to explore 1.8 million acres of

offshore territory of Belize, just east of the Belize Barrier Reef, and 200,000 acres onshore in the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts.

The prospects and consequences of offshore oil drilling will no doubt spark a fierce debate in Belize, especially in light of valuations

of the reef, which has exceeded a billion dollars in annual worth.

The diagram Amandala has created to demonstrate the concession areas shows that the offshore plot runs right below

Belize’s maritime frontier with Mexico, at the Boca Bacalar Chico, running right, east of Ambergris Caye and its tourist

capital, San Pedro, and right along the highly prized reef system. The concession area also covers a significant portion of the

Turneffe Atoll and the Lighthouse Reef. The plot ends just north-east of Glovers Reef.

The onshore concession blocks cover an area west of Independence and Big Creek, in the east, almost connecting with a separate

plot spanning the Big Falls, San Antonio area in Toledo, north of the high-traffic border village of Jalacte, along the

Belize-Guatemala border.

Director of Petroleum, Andre Cho, told Amandala, when we asked him why not make these reef areas off-limits, that the decision

would be up to Cabinet or policy makers in government to reserve certain areas and make them off-limits to petroleum drilling.

Every square inch of Belize can be parceled out, said Cho, “...up to your backyard.”

Cho noted that any company permitted to explore for petroleum in Belize still has to get the requisite permits from the Forest

Department, the Department of the Environment, and other government entities. The parties would have to apply to DOE for

permits, which may require the company to conduct an environmental impact assessment, Cho also explained.

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow told Amandala that the time has come to rethink the granting of petroleum

concessions along those environmental lines. The existing concession areas, said Barrow, were inherited from the former

administration. Going forward, said Barrow, government should look at excluding sensitive areas from petroleum concessions.

He added that as companies proceed to work their concessions, they must get the proper permits and environmental clearance.

“Government would use those mechanisms to ensure that nothing happens that is environmentally prejudicial,” he

added.

A Marketwire report coming out of Houston, Texas, on April 22, notes that the partners, Princess Petroleum and Treaty Energy, are

targeting the 10,000 acre bloc in south central Belize for its first well. “This site is located off the Southern Highway, which

provides quick access to ports in Punta Gorda and Belize City,” states the report.

Another Marketwire report published this week points to satellite imagery that the report suggests signals possible hydrocarbon and

methane gas presence.

Says the April 22 report: “Most of the offshore areas in Treaty’s concession area are in shallow water, and many

locations showing hydrocarbon deposits have small formations which make it very economical to drill in terms of offshore drilling

costs.”

Treaty’s announcement furthermore proclaimed, “We believe that this business opportunity has put our company on