Nassau, Bahamas - BPC, the Caribbean and Atlantic margin focused oil and gas company said today it is delighted to note the Honourable Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis’ statement of his Government’s intention to implement a Sovereign Wealth Fund in The Bahamas in line with similar funds maintained by countries, so to enable accumulation of wealth for the national benefit from natural resources.
A Sovereign Wealth Fund is typically a nationally owned and managed investment fund where excess cash or income, most usually from royalty payments derived from a nation’s natural resources, is invested. Set aside in this manner as a form of “national savings”, future income from a Sovereign Wealth Fund can directly benefit not only this generation but future generations through, as in other nations, an annual dividend payment to all citizens, infrastructure development, educational and vocational subsidies and the like. One of the world’s most well-known sovereign wealth fund is that of Norway, which has seen tremendous wealth accumulated for the benefit of all Norwegians, as that country’s oil and gas resources have been successfully and safely developed over the past five decades.
“Four years ago, The Bahamas passed legislation to establish the framework for a Bahamian Sovereign Wealth Fund, an initiative which BPC actively supported. The many natural resources in The Bahamas, including its potential oil resource, have the capacity to add an entirely new income stream to the Government of The Bahamas, thereby diversifying the economy and significantly broadening the government’s revenue base. We are thus delighted with Prime Minister Minnis’ statements today indicating how the Sovereign Wealth Fund will be brought to life.” said BPC CEO, Simon Potter.
“Royalty payments to the Government, for instance if BPC were to find commercial quantities of oil from its exploratory well “Perseverance 1” and thereafter bring that oil into production, would provide exactly the kind of excess cash the Prime Minister envisages to be paid into a Sovereign Wealth Fund. Once established, such a wealth fund would allow the Government a much greater degree of choice than currently exists to promote and safeguard the wellbeing of all Bahamians. Choices, for example, to pay down the national debt, or to invest in infrastructure and services that better the lives of its citizens -- the possibilities are many.”
Many of BPC’s management and professional teams have worked in countries or states that have benefited significantly from the establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund, for example Norway, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Alaska, and East Timor. Most relevantly, BPC has oil production operations in Trinidad and Tobago – – a Caribbean country that has successfully maintained just such a Sovereign Wealth Fund created from the surplus income generated from its oil and gas wealth and derived along-side its buoyant and lucrative tourism income.
Dr. Minnis in his address (to the Bahamas Business Outlook 2021 14th January) said: “This Sovereign Fund will also likely manage a special sub-fund that will be dedicated to expanding critical infrastructure throughout The Bahamas, especially in our Family Islands.” The Prime Minister also noted that “the fund will enshrine an accountable and transparent means for Bahamians to ensure that national assets are deployed and developed for the benefit of the entire country.”
