Probe into abandoned oil records

Oil exploration records and rock samples discovered gathering dust in a San Ġwann garage have prompted an investigation by the Infrastructure Ministry. Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi said yesterday he was “shocked” to have been told of the abandoned records, which, he said, had cost millions of euros to compile. Ministry officials would now be combing through the records to see what they contained, a spokeswoman said. They would also be seeking to understand why the records fell into such a state of disarray in the first place. Nationalist MP George Pullicino was responsible for oil exploration during his time as Resources Minister. He said yesterday he had no knowledge of the garage in question or its contents. “I never entered into the details of what was stored where,” he said. “That’s a question for the technical experts to answer.” The Times was given permission to visit the garage in question and see the dusty documents first-hand, although leafing through them was strictly prohibited. The garage is rented by the Government and used as a document archiving facility, although it had clearly not been put to any significant use for quite some time, given the copious amounts...