Exploratory oil drilling has commenced in Bahamian waters, according to Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) Chief Executive Officer Simon Potter, who announced in a statement that the Perseverance #1 well was spud on Sunday, December 20.
“We are very pleased to announce that the drilling of the exploratory well, Perseverance #1 has commenced – the well has been spud,” Potter said.
“This is a momentous milestone for both BPC and The Bahamas and represents the culmination of more than 10 years’ work by a team who have remained steadfast in their belief in this project throughout. That it is finally taking place is a testament to the application, skill and professionalism of many people over those years. The well will be drilled to the highest environmental and safety standards over the next 45-60 days.
“Our shareholders have been extremely patient, but we are now within a couple of months of understanding the scale of potential resource uplift that might be accessed within the licenses: a potential uplift that is the traditional domain of the oil majors.”
The well, Perseverance #1, is located 90 miles west of Andros. BPC said it is targeting oil resources of .77 billion barrels with an upside of 1.44 billion barrels.
The last coordinates provided by ship tracking website Marinetraffic.com, placed the drillship Stena IceMAX a few miles west off the western coast of Andros.
The commencement of the drilling comes amid intense opposition from environmentalists who have expressed concern over the potentially detrimental effects the drilling can have on the country’s natural resources.
Potter said the company has spent millions in its technical capacity prior to the commencement of the drilling.
“More than a decade ago, BPC secured several offshore hydrocarbon licenses in the far-southern waters of The Bahamas,” he said.
“Convinced of the compelling prospectivity of those licenses, the company has spent close to $120 million bettering our technical understanding, continuing to de-risk the play and ultimately preparing meticulously for exploration drilling. Our third seismic survey revealed structures that have the potential to contain a world-class barrel oil resource that, if present in the way we hope, could prove to be transformative, not just for our company, but for the nation and people of The Bahamas as a whole.
“I very much look forward to updating shareholders with results once the well has been completed. The next several weeks will be a truly exciting time for BPC.”
BPC revealed last week that confidence in its operations remains after the company secured access to another $20 million through a “leading” European asset manager.
Potter added that 2021 will be a busy year for BPC in pursuing operations that have the potential to “create considerable value for the company”.
“We have a full slate of activity planned in Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, where we are proposing an active drilling campaign of appraisal and production aimed at rapidly bringing wells directly into production and thus cash flow, building to 2,500 bopd (barrels of oil per day) production by the end of 2021,” he said.
Over a week ago, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis strongly stated his opposition to oil drilling in Bahamian waters saying he was “totally” against it.
However, he noted that when the Minnis administration took office, it met an agreement in place that it could not get out of.
“Unfortunately, we were saddled with an agreement that we met there,” he said.
“When we discussed it with the legal department, we were advised that the commitment and everything was signed and basically we could not get out of it.”
Environmental groups Waterkeeper Bahamas Ltd. and Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save the Bays) recently filed an injunction in the Supreme Court seeking a judicial review of the government’s decision to authorize the drilling.
The Supreme Court has not yet heard the matter.
The post Drilling begins appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/drilling-begins/
No comments:
Post a Comment