Governor Adrian Davis
New Governor Adrian Davis held his second press conference on June 1, following his two town hall meetings in Salem and Lookout, which said was simply, “because I’m new here, I thought people might want to hear what I have to say and I also of course want to hear your questions,” referring to the frequency of his announcement about press conferences.
At this press conference that preceded the Chief Minister’s on June 7, he spoke to the geothermal issue and noted how they (government) were progressing following the UK governments suggestion of their willingness to support the geothermal exploration and development in Montserrat.
The governor reported: “We have been discussing with DFID the proposal that they put forward a project for funding by the international climate change fund which is a fund established in the UK…, to investigate the Geothermal reserves that Montserrat has.” He was responding to questions about his talking to the issue at the town hall meetings.
Chief Minister Reuben Meade
He spoke to what has been touted numerous times previously. “…what this proposal would do would be to identify what reserves Montserrat has within a very high degree of probability over 95%,” he said.
He hoped that a proposal would go out very soon so when we have proven the reserves it will be up to the government really to decide what then to do with this,” which he said would, “give a greater certainty and a greater barging power for the government of Montserrat in dealing with the private sector producers.”
He concluded, “Drilling a production well from grant funding in my view is the best way to proceed, then we can decide from there which is the best way to proceed once we’ve proven the reserves.”
In the relating article here, at his press conference Chief Minister Reuben Meade was critical of the governor’s optimism that the funds were already certain, confirming however that the proposal had already been on its way.
