Without Joe Mizzi, we won’t find oil

L-Imperu ta’ Joe Mizzi

Then they wonder why they came across as ridiculous. In the general election campaign, Alfred Sant told a crowd of harridans beneath a tent in Senglea that if the Labour government failed to find oil, Joe Mizzi would have to resign. Joe Mizzi? Oh, yes – the Minister Without Portfolio in Sant’s 1996-1998 cabinet, who was installed at the Auberge de Castille with no purpose in particular.

It turned out that Sant had since earmarked him as the Minister Who Will Find Oil Or Else. ‘Insibu z-zejt,’ he told the shrieking crowd. ‘Ghaliex le?’ Sitting there on my sofa, I privately thought that all the stress had finally caused the man to lose his marbles, and before we knew it, we would have a prime minister who was one sandwich short of a picnic, for want of a better expression.

My geography student son, watching the ‘find oil or resign’ speech on television, asked me whether the leader of the opposition could possibly be insane. I said that I wasn’t going to venture an opinion on that, but there was obviously something not quite right up there if he thought that he was going to win the election by getting Miss Miriam Dalli to put on a Super One loop that video of him telling the Super One cameraman and that toby jug who ‘edits’ Maltastar.com to f**k off. Then he dived into his bedroom and returned with a geological map and a detailed explanation, not a word of which I understood. The gist was that the Opposition leader couldn’t make the discovery of oil an electoral promise, and he certainly couldn’t depend on it to solve the problems he was about to create by promising to subsidise the price of oil as it went through the roof.

So now we don’t have Joe Mizzi installed at Castille, and we’re not going to find oil. This government, sensible chaps, haven’t breathed a word about it, preferring to work towards tangible objectives rather than bake pies in the sky.

Wondering what became of Joe Mizzi, now that he needn’t spend five years frantically trying to persuade some oil company to explore our waters and come up with the goods, I logged on to www.joemizzi.org. And amazingly, his site remains riddled with references to oil exploration, including a video section called ‘Tiftix ghaz-zejt’, video clips from his ‘oil exploration’ appearances on Bondi’s show, and articles about oil exploration.

Here’s one he wrote for The Times 15 months ago, in which he promises to resign if the new Labour government doesn’t find oil. I wonder who wrote it for him.

Oil realities

My comment in Parliament that I will present my resignation if a new Labour government fails to extract oil shows the Labour Party’s unambiguous and determined commitment to fulfil its promises to the people of this country. Nevertheless, Robert Musumeci’s contribution to The Times, labelled Oil Myths (November 14), and the PN-run media, seem disturbed with such a pledge and the serious approach to local politics. They resort to mocking what they cannot comprehend. The PN’s reaction is understandable in its present dismal circumstances. The words “resignation” and “commitment to fulfil promises” are not only missing from their political vocabulary and are incomprehensible to them but these words are like anathema to their ears.

Mr Musumeci should not ask whether I am implying that the present PN administration .is deliberately failing to find oil, but why our country remains the only country in the central Mediterranean region that does not extract oil, despite our sizeable maritime territories and very good petroleum plays. This fact stands as a sore thumb in the PN’s failed record in oil exploration.

Mr Musumeci also asks whether the subject of oil exploration comes in the public domain when an election is nearing. This comment should be directed to Minister Ninu Zammit, who is responsible for oil exploration. The recent announcement on oil exploration activity in blocks 4 and 5 seems to be timed prior to pending elections, and only serves to heighten expectations of wealth, and increase investments in the oil companies, which only boosts oil exploration elsewhere.

Blocks 4 and 5 have already been investigated by means of 2D seismic tests, when potential reservoir rocks were identified. However, the blocks lie at considerable distance from the known source rock in the Ragusa basin in Southern Sicily. Texaco carried out a 2D seismic survey in 1991 and claimed that the Ragusa basin source rock extends to blocks 4 and 5, although no well was drilled to confirm this. Their interpretation failed to convince and Texaco could not farm out its claim to a company willing to actually drill a well in the area.

Interestingly, two years later, a UNESCO learned publication makes no reference to source rocks or the Ragusa basin extending to this area! Instead, this publication (with the Malta official imprimatur) links the potential reservoir rocks to geological events unrelated to the productive Ragusa basin.

A few months ago, the government contracted Global Petroleum to investigate blocks 4 and 5 and the myth of the productive Ragusa basin extending to this area was revived in the hope of raising expectations again. Now that Mr Musumeci seems to have attained expertise on the oil exploration subject, can he perhaps clarify the government’s oil myths and their strong tinge of pre-electoral political opportunism?

In today’s tough economic times, the people of this country want their future founded on realities not myths. The MLP’s commitment to oil exploration speaks for itself. During the short-lived Labour administration (1996-98) we did not procrastinate to drill the Gozo well. In those days the PN’s heavy pre-electoral propaganda was mainly targeted to cover up and neglect the positive results on the extraction of oil in Malta, yet, just a few weeks after the PN returned to power, drilling was not halted immediately but was given the green light to proceed. Today, the MLP is promising that when it is returned to power it will continue from where it was untimely halted.

“Today, the MLP is promising that when it is returned to power it will continue from where it was untimely halted.” Famous last words, and ungrammatical ones, too, literally translated from Maltese into English.

At least now we know why Alfred Sant was so determined in his promise to halve the surcharge come what may. Joe Mizzi was going to do a Moses and strike a rock with his divining-stick.