KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesman on Energy, Phillip Paulwell, is urging the Government to do away with the public relations and instead get United Oil and Gas to honour the terms of its oil exploration licence.

Paulwell criticised the Government’s approach to oil exploration during his contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The former energy minister in the last People’s National Party (PNP) administration also sought to take credit for activities currently taking place. He told the House that, “My conviction regarding the hydrocarbon potential of Jamaica’s territorial waters was formed in a single, defining meeting. When I sat with the late Dr Raymond Wright and spent several hours reviewing three decades of Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica data, I became firmly convinced that Jamaica sits atop significant hydrocarbon systems.”

Wright was the former group managing director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.

Paulwell said it is true that wells had previously been drilled without yielding commercial quantities but argued that oil shows were recorded in ten of those wells.

“That is not failure. That is evidence,” he remarked.

He pointed out that the Government at the time could not fund the operation by itself as it was constrained by the commitments of a strict International Monetary Fund agreement.

“I therefore did what responsible stewardship of this portfolio required. I took Jamaica’s geological data, our technical case and our ambition on a road show from Dallas to Dublin, seeking credible international partners. After all that effort, a single serious player emerged: Tullow Oil, which has since become United Oil and Gas,” Paulwell reminded.

He also reminded that a five-year agreement was signed in 2015 and that the commitment was explicit: the completion of three-dimensional seismic data collection, followed by drilling no later than 2020.

“Even as we signed that agreement with Tullow, we were in parallel negotiations with Repsol, and I will be direct with this House; the terms being developed with Repsol were, by any assessment, significantly more favourable than those of the first arrangement,” said Paulwell.

He pointed out that the PNP then lost the 2016 general election, and that “those superior negotiations with Repsol were abandoned”.

“I am deeply disappointed by what has followed since 2016,” he continued, adding that, “The promised obligated timeline has not been met. In place of results, this country has been subject to periodic titivating and tantalising revelations by press releases and conferences all geared to excite and to PR a project that should have reached much further by now.”

Paulwell warned that Jamaica could remain in this holding position for many more years if the Government does not insist that the terms of the licence, which requires actual drilling to take place, be met.

“Once the results of the 3D seismic survey were known, then drilling should have started. This survey was done about three years ago. In place of a drill bit penetrating the seabed, we have received marketing exercises from a licence holder whose resources appear inadequate for the task,” said the former energy minister.

He charged that the Government’s commitment to advancing oil and gas exploration must now be called into serious question, arguing that “the time for patience has passed”.

“The licence holder has failed to honour the terms of the agreement. The extensions that have been granted have been far too generous. I call upon this Government to treat those failures as the leverage that they have to revisit every substantive term of the agreement, to secure financial terms that are materially better than those under the original arrangement and to give effect to the penalties for failure to perform,” Paulwell insisted.

He added that “Jamaica’s hydrocarbon potential has not diminished. What has diminished is the Government’s sense of urgency in realising it. That must change.”

— Lynford Simpson