On the same day the Government unveiled plans to launch a call for expressions of interest from energy companies interested in building a gas power station, a lynchpin in the Government’s election programme, the Infrastructure Minister made another important announcement. He said that a number of large companies had already declared they were interested in oil exploration in Maltese waters and meetings have been scheduled to discuss the way forward.

To most Maltese, the first announcement is of more immediate interest because, according to the Government, it should lead to lower energy rates. Whether Labour manages to have the power station built within the time frame it drew up before the election is another matter. But people have been promised a 25 per cent cut in electricity bills as from next year and they are rightly expecting it to meet its pledge.

However, more important than the planned setting up of the gas power plant is what Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi had to say about oil exploration, more so in view of the long history of disappointments that the island has had since it launched its first oil exploration programme on land.

There have been so many false hopes that most people today generally tend to ignore any announcements of progress in oil exploration. Never mind what the Infrastructure Ministry said about the typo that lumped oil exploration with the wrong ministerial portfolio, something that indicates organisational fumbling, the comments made by the minister are significant.

Mr Mizzi said he has already informed the European Commission of the Government’s intention to open oil exploration in seven areas on the island’s continental shelf and that he was ‘very surprised’ at the high level of interest already shown by drilling companies.

So, it does look as if the Government is all set to take up the oil exploration programme in earnest. If, after so many heartaches, it finally leads to Malta striking oil in commercial quantities, this would naturally help change the face of the island. But it is better not to count any chickens before they are hatched.

Compared with programmes in other countries, Malta has drilled only a limited number of oil wells so far and, at one time, it had the misfortune of running into serious trouble with the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi over drilling in a potential area in the Medina Bank in the south of the island.

One company is now planning to drill a well in an area in the south that has never been explored. According to the company, the area has huge prospects.

Mr Mizzi now has an opportunity, once he is in the ministerial seat, to follow up the allegations he had made in Parliament about six years ago over exploration in Gozo. The claims were not very clear but they were to the effect that the people had been denied resultant prosperity from an oil well because that was what had suited some quarters.

According to Mr Mizzi, the main stumbling block at the time related to commission. He had argued that things were done badly and that no investigation had ever been carried out.

He had also said that there were interested parties who knew there was oil and would come back under a Labour government. Since six years is a very short time in oil exploration. Mr Mizzi may perhaps now want to inform the people whether he plans to tackle the Gozo area.