An application for a new oil exploration licence off Malta is being considered by the government.
Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said on Thursday that the application is currently being evaluated.
Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference, Caruana said if the application is given the green light “in the coming days”, the licence will be issued by the government’s continental shelf department.
The department is responsible for licensing and regulating oil exploration activities on Malta’s continental shelf.
Figures tabled in parliament recently show there are no active licences for oil exploration off Malta.
The last two remaining licences expired during the past year.
There have been at least two active oil exploration licences every year since 2000, according to the figures.
In February, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Caruana told parliament that long periods of low oil prices and territorial disputes, which have prevented Malta from searching for oil in the areas with the highest potential, had effectively stalled the country’s oil exploration efforts.
Malta claims jurisdiction over a large portion of the Mediterranean continental shelf but some of the territory is also claimed by Italy and Libya.
The country’s offshore area is divided into seven exploration and production designated areas, covering over 75,000 square kilometres.
Although some oil deposits have been discovered in the past, no commercially viable discoveries have yet been made.
The failure to make any headway in the country’s prospecting recently led to accusations that the government had given up on finding oil.
In October, PN energy spokesperson Mark Anthony Sammut said the government is doing nothing to encourage oil exploration.
Sammut said that while other European and Mediterranean countries have increased licences for gas and oil drilling, the opposite happened in Malta.
The failure to make any headway in the country’s prospecting recently led to accusations that the government had given up on finding oil
Geologist Peter Gatt last year also questioned why Malta has seemingly “given up” on oil exploration.
Back in 2006, then backbench PL MP Joe Mizzi had famously promised to resign if no oil is found under a Labour government, citing “undeniable proof” of the presence of oil in Maltese waters.
Mizzi failed to get re-elected to parliament in March.
Thursday's press conference was held to announce the updating of Malta’s geological map. The new map, surveyed by the British Geological Survey (BGS), is over double the accuracy of the previous one at a scale of 1:10,000.
The last time Malta’s geological formations were mapped was in 1993 by H. M. Pedley, scaling Malta at a rate of 1:25,000.
The updated map allows users to navigate through the various themes or layers that define the island’s geological landscape and is available free of charge.