NASSAU, BAHAMAS — While the Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) oil exploration activities in The Bahamas may have ended for now, attorneys were back in court yesterday arguing over an application by the oil exploration company seeking security for costs in the sum of $200,000 in ongoing judicial review proceedings.
Clare Montgomery, QC, who argued on behalf of BPC, yesterday argued there was no evidence to show that Waterkeeper Bahamas Ltd and the Coalition to Save Clifton Bay have any assets in order to meet any future order for costs by the court.
Last month, Supreme Court Justice Petra Hanna-Adderley ruled that BPC and Bahamas Offshore Petroleum Company may be added as a party in the judicial review, accepting the position that they would be directly impacted by the legal proceedings.
Waterkeeper Bahamas Ltd and the Coalition to Save Clifton Bay are seeking a judicial review of the government’s decision to approve exploratory oil drilling in The Bahamas.
BPC has sealed its exploratory well after not finding commercial quantities of oil.
Attorney Ruth Jordan, who argued on behalf of the environmental groups, yesterday contended the effect of the security for costs application and intention was to stifle the judicial review action or “come close to it”.
The court will hear the substantive judicial review application on March 29 and 30.
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