BPC secures access to more funding as drillship arrives

Stena Drilling’s Stena IceMAX drillship, being used by Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) to drill its test well in Bahamian waters, has arrived in The Bahamas and was just off the Berry Islands as of last evening, according to ship tracking website Marinetraffic.com.

BPC revealed in a statement yesterday that confidence in its operations remain after the company secured access to potentially another $20 million through a “leading” European asset manager.

BPC Chief Executive Officer Simon Potter said in the statement that the drilling of the Perseverance #1 well in the southern Bahamas will “commence imminently”.

He touted the new funding arrangement as a nod to the confidence of the market in the company and its inherent value, as a full service oil and gas company, with exploration, production, appraisal and development assets across the Caribbean and South America.

“2021 will be a busy year for BPC in pursuing operations that have the potential to create considerable value for the company,” Potter said.

“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. We will also be maturing prospects that will drive an active onshore exploration program that is designed to deliver the next step-change in production beyond 2021.

“In The Bahamas, we have the transformational Perseverance #1 well, for which operations are expected to commence imminently. And in Uruguay, we expect to commence early-stage evaluation of already identified leads, with a view to maturing drillable prospects from our high potential offshore license.”

According to BPC’s statement, the company has immediate access to $10 million through the issue of 375,000,000 new ordinary shares, with the option to expand that funding to $15 million and the potential to expand that amount to $20 million.

Meantime, opposition to oil drilling grows in The Bahamas, with Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis revealing last week that he is completely opposed to oil drilling, but contended that the government is contractually beholden to the drilling of the exploratory well.

BPC stated this recent round of funding will satisfy ongoing costs associated with the Perseverance #1 well in The Bahamas, as well as “the anticipated costs of work in Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname planned for 2021”.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/bpc-secures-access-to-more-funding-as-drillship-arrives/