Saba News News and Information from Saba Island, Dutch Caribbean
There will be no oil extraction near Saba. Minister of Climate and Green Growth Stientje van Veldhoven stated this tonight during the parliamentary debate on the cabinet measures to mitigate the consequences of rising oil and fuel prices.
Member of Parliament Frederik Jansen (Forum for Democracy) pointed out the presence of an oil field near Saba that could potentially be tapped if a fuel shortage threatens. “I want to know if the Minister is willing to launch an investigation into oil extraction off the coast of Saba, which is, after all, a Dutch municipality. Various scientific articles estimate that an oil field the size of 500 million barrels lies there.”
Van Veldhoven: “Multiple studies have been conducted into this. No extraction plan was ever drawn up for it by those parties. They were commercial parties. Moreover, it is located right next to a protected coral reef. So, from both an economic and ecological perspective, no possibilities have been found for oil extraction near Saba.”
