Caribbean & Central America - March 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

How far President Martinelli has learnt from these two political defeats is subject to question given his recent announcement of plans to hold bidding contests this year for hydrocarbons concessions - a move likely to arouse opposition from the same sectors which mobilised protests over the Ley Chorizo and mining. Panama does not produce oil but Martinelli, who has also floated the possibility of amending the 1987 hydrocarbons law to attract foreign investors, believes that potential reserves have been detected in 10 areas. These are in the provinces of the Bocas del Toro (on the Caribbean side) and the Darién, the Bay of San Miguel and the Bay of Panamá, in the Pacific, some of which lies in indigenous territory. The Martinelli government announced in September last year that it had contracted Venezuela's OTS company to create a database aimed at identifying oil reserves, a project which is expected to be ready over the next couple of months.

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