The race for oil: will Jamaica be the next country to drill and what does that mean for its green pledges?

J amaica is closer than ever to drilling for oil. Tests on samples from the seabed off the Caribbean island’s south coast earlier this year identified hydrocarbons , which suggest the presence of crude oil below ground. Jamaica imports all its fuel, which costs about $1.5-2bn (£1.1bn-1.5bn) annually , depending on global oil prices. It is a persistent drag on an economy that generated $4.3bn from tourism, its biggest earner, in 2024 . United Oil & Gas, a UK-based company, holds an exclusive exploration licence for the Walton-Morant basin, a 22,400sq km (8,650 sq mile) block off the island’s southern coast. Surface oil seeps have been repeatedly documented across the island, but so far there has been no commercial oil production. Jamaicans in Westmoreland parish transfer petrol during the shortage that followed Hurricane Melissa last November. Photograph: Ricardo Makyn/AFP/Getty Images News of a potential oil discovery was met with guarded optimism by the government. In a public statement , Daryl Vaz, the energy minister, calls the results “very positive”. “They haven’t seen or touched the real deal, but [the results] are still important,” he says. …