The petroleum concession which the Barrow administration gave in 2010 to Paradise Energy Limited, a company owned by Kimano Barrow and Alfredo Acosta, does not just encompass Belize’s major onshore protected areas such as the Columbia River Forest Reserve, the Bladen Nature Reserve and the Chiquibul National Park, but also the heart of the Stann Creek Valley, where one of the leading pillars of the economy—citrus—now thrives.
The composite map which Amandala has created demonstrates that, included in the concession area—the largest onshore acreage given to any petroleum company—are the villages of Pomona, Silk Grass, and Middlesex in Stann Creek, right to the east of Dangriga.
This is the heart of the citrus valley, a portion of which has been declared by the partners of Princess Petroleum to have potential for petroleum—contrary to declarations by government officials.
Radar scans published at http://www.treatyenergy.com/belize1/img14.html show this. We superimposed one area of interest on our composite map to demonstrate the point.
We also note that lying right along the border of the concession area are Benque Viejo del Carmen and San Antonio in the Cayo District, and Indian Creek and San Pablo in the Toledo District.
Whereas much of the contract area is rugged, rocky, uninhabited terrain, a sizeable portion of it is not.
The concession area is also adjacent to those of Miles Tropical Energy, Princess Petroleum (Onshore), and BCH/ZMT International Inc.
When Amandala queried why Princess had been doing satellite imagery for areas not included in its plot, the reply we got was that it is customary as a part of the overall exploratory study to understand the physical features of the concession area and its general potential.