Carlos Roldán an investigator of the Costa Rican Technology Institute is promoting a referendum to vote the “Law of Exploitation of National Energy Resources” which would allow the exploration and exploitation of petroleum and natural gas in Costa Rica. The recollection of signatures began this week.

A total of 5% of the electoral registry, 168,667 signatures are needed to call the national referendum.

According to Roldán, studies have shown that there are possibilities of finding these resources in the areas of San Carlos and Limón and considers the exploitation of oil and gas as a way to improve the competitiveness of the national productive sector and also a way to generate employment.

This project also proposes other ways to take advantage of renewable energy resources visualizing the export of electricity to Central America.

The Law states that there is a period of ten months to gather the necessary signatures, there are currently 100 locations all around the country were those that support the project can sign, the majority of them are gas stations.

There is currently another bill in discussion in Congress that would forbid these type of activities in the country.

Mihaerla Dobrinescu, expert of the Geology Department, commented in an interview in national radio show Nuestra Voz, “Forbidding this activity would mean to close the country’s door to progress”.