Editorial: Oil drilling in troubled waters
While finding oil could benefit Malta’s economy, the country has far more urgent priorities, such as renewable energy and human resources. Malta’s ambition to become an oil-producing country was first kindled in 1953 when oil was discovered close to Ragusa, in Sicily. Wells since dug onshore in Naxxar, Żabbar and Għar Lapsi have produced no results. Yet, this ambition seems to linger on even if the government is ambiguous on prioritising oil drilling in troubled Mediterranean waters. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has announced that a Maltese subsidiary of a Jersey-based oil and gas drilling company was granted an exploration licence to drill in two maritime zones off southeast Malta. In his budget speech in October 2021, he had declared that “Malta has no oil and gas”. Still, the government appears sceptical about the importance of oil exploration in our waters. This was confirmed by Energy Minister Miriam Dalli. “We are not interested in oil, definitely not for energy production,” she told a breakfast meeting on Malta’s Energy Agenda: Making the Green Transition a Reality, organised by the European Commission with Times of Malta. These apparently contradictory attitudes on...