By BETTY VEDRINE, Guardian Senior Reporter

With the high price of oil - hitting a record $120 a barrel yesterday - countries like The Bahamas are seeking ways to reduce the impact this price hike has on its citizens. And Bahamas Electricity Corporation's general manager Kevin Basden said the government-run entity would be open to a number of alternative energy sources.

"From a BEC perceptive, we would be open to any number of proposals from the private sector as we continue to pursue renewable energy sources," said Basden who was attending the official launch of the National Energy Policy committee at the British Colonial Hilton. He also serves as a member of that committee.

The types of renewable energy sources that Basden refers to include geothermal and solar energy, hydropower, and energy derived from wind, tides, and the thermal stratification of the oceans.

Basden said that entering into private partnerships might be the route the country would have to take in the future.

"From our perspective, we would be looking at the bigger picture from where the private partnership is in the best interest of the corporation and the country," he said.

Currently, Basden said, there are a number of proposals being reviewed by BEC as the corporation looked for ways to cut costs.

"We have a number of proposals on different types of renewable energies from any number of companies," he said.

So far, BEC has appointed an in-house renewable technical committee, which will focus on reviewing these proposals.

As oil and gas production diminish in the future, alternative energy sources must be developed to take their place. Like the United States, in The Bahamas oil and gas constitute the most important energy fuels. These are the fossil fuels, so-called because they are derived from energy that in most cases was emplaced in the ground millions of years ago.

The heavy dependence on natural gas is a peculiarity of North America, due to extensive domestic gas fields linked to many parts of the continent by a truly remarkable grid of gas lines. Other developed regions generally show a heavier reliance on oil and coal and a lesser use of natural gas.

World reserves of oil are dominated by those of the Persian Gulf region. But even with these huge fields, the total supply is finite and some estimates put peak production only a decade or so away. Production in the United States already appears to have peaked. Tar sands and oil shales may extend petroleum reserves considerably if technological advances make them more profitable to work.