By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A Bahamas-based oil explorer yesterday said it now has "all the tools we need" to drill an exploratory well within the 2020 year-end target set by the government, its top executive said yesterday.
Simon Potter, the Bahamas Petroleum Company's (BPC) chief executive, told Tribune Business he was "very confident we can deliver" after the company raised sufficient investor financing to almost totally cover the $25m high-end cost for the well.
Revealing that the oil rig would only be on site for 60 days during the 2020 first half, Mr Potter said BPC had not stopped its search for a joint venture or farm-in partner given that it would ultimately need to drill more wells to determine "the size and scale" of any discovery should the first prove successful.
That would require additional capital, but Mr Potter added that the exploration outfit was "already in negotiations about long-lead items" that it will require for its first exploratory well such as air/sea transportation logistics for provisioning the rig and removing waste.
"We're confident we can deliver that now," the BPC chief said of the first well. "We have all the tools we need to be able to deliver it. Today we have the technical services, the rig, the people and the funding so I am very confident we can deliver."
BPC's latest $11.4m capital raise, combined with previous financing already put in place, has given the company access to $24.6m in incoming cash flows as it ramps up efforts to fulfill its licence obligations to the Bahamian government.
"We have ensured we have the funding as and when we need it," Mr Potter added. "If the rig comes in the first half of 2020, that's when we'll have the funding. Our intent is to drill the well in the first half of 2020, which is well before the year-end.
"We have obviously funded all the technical bricks, and have taken the environmental permitting forward in a measured and responsible way. It's been a bit up and down, but the way forward is more straightforward now in the sense we have all the tools and are getting on with the professional work we are trained and qualified to do."
Mr Potter added that BPC's latest financing raise meant it can "honour our obligations to the Government" whether it secures a joint venture partner or not, which remains its preferred option.
"We want to be as financially robust as possible," he explained. "It will ultimately take more than one well to prove the size and scale of this resource. Once we establish the presence of hydrocarbons in these structures we will then move to further delineate the extent of the prospect.
"This will be a 60-day well. This will not be a producer, it will not be a permanent installation. It will be a 60-rig on-site. The location will be 80-90 miles from any landfall in The Bahamas. The closest landfall is Cuba, about 25 to 35 miles away. It's a temporary location, and remote.
"We're already in negotiations about long lead items, looking at how we provision the rig, the extent to which we fly people in and where boats will come from to restock, bring in food and take waste off. There's a lot of stuff going on."
Comments
realitycheck242 5 years ago
Mr: Potter ….make sure your oil rig has the latest Blowout preventer technology in use in the world today. We need to avoid the Deep water Horizon 2010 oil spill that took place in the gulf of Mexico from possibly happening in the Bahamas..
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct…
Islandboy242242 5 years ago
So the wildcat well will be plugged and capped after 60 days? Even if they find millions of gallons of oil? Again I ask if the government, BEST commission, Ministry of Environment, someone is mandating for funds to be set aside for cleanup or underwater well repair if needed. Insurance? Responsible parties?
Bahama7 5 years ago
This is the team who will deliver for the country.
God bless you BPC in your hunt for oil.
banker 5 years ago
LOL
proudloudandfnm 5 years ago
Resume ready!!!!
banker 5 years ago
Oh my naive, gullible people. I've been saying for 5 years now, "Dere een no erl!". None. No Oil at all. This is a junior resource play. It is all about blowing off stock, making a job for yourself, and everytime Potter & Co need more money, they generate fake news. Don't believe me? Seven years ago, in 2012, this is the headline:
Bahamas Petroleum ‘closer than ever’ to drilling
*Bahamas Petroleum (LON:BPC), which searches for oil off the group of Caribbean islands, cut its losses in 2012, with an exciting year on the agenda thanks to new government sanctions.
A new government elected in the Bahamas last year recently confirmed that the company can drill off its shores ahead of a referendum process, which will only be held once commercial oil is found.
“We are closer than ever to realising our goal of exploring the hydrocarbon potential of the Bahamas and look forward to the near-term future with excitement and confidence.” *
Here's the link: https://ca.proactiveinvestors.com/compa…
The shares of the company are trading for less than 2cents. Yep ... cents. Did you ever see the Wolf of Wall Street? It is this kind of useless shiite stock they are selling. They keep having to manufacture fake news and hype to sell their stock.
There ain't no oil. There ain't no drilling. There ain't gonna be no drilling. And they will be saying the same thing a year from now, until y'all wise up. They are just selling stock to make money for themselves. Check out their salaries and stock that they sell.
Of course, I'm preaching to those who don't want to hear, so carry on smartly.
Cheesecake 5 years ago
Wanna bet ? $5 says that you're wrong.
banker 5 years ago
Yes .I'd say more, but it would be immoral of me to take more than that of your money.
TalRussell 5 years ago
Comrade Banker, the trading shares for less than 2pence .... Yep, you didn't have had watched the movie, Wolf of Wall Street to appreciate that even if it dropped 1/2pence - still tis a far better stock hold onto your investment portfolio than investing in OBAN, yes, no ..
banker 5 years ago
They are both dogs. You lose on both of them. The head of Oban has a degree in Art for fuchk sakes. As iterated, we are a naive people who will believe anybody if it sounds like we gettin' something free.
proudloudandfnm 5 years ago
You do know that scans show oil right? Cubans tried to reach it but couldn't due to obsolete technology, BPL is gambling that new technology can reach it. There is most definitely oil, can it be reached is the challenge...
banker 5 years ago
Oil is not shown by scans. It is found by seismic data and drilling. Seismic data sends waves through the water and seabed and each geological layer reflects back some of the wave energy. The rock density can be extrapolated and then used to create a geological map of the layers of seabed. That layer map will show features where oil may have accumulated millions of years ago from the vegetation of the carboniferous era, but it doesn't show oil. It shows them the right type of place. Then they have to drill. There is some oil in the Caribbean Basin, but not this far north. The oil is sulfurous and requires vast amounts of energy to refine. That is why Cuba is not oil self-sufficient. It is a very poor grade of crude.
As a side note, oil is not a saviour. Trinidad is an oil-producing country, and their economy is so bad, that they have instituted currency controls preventing the use of hard currency for use outside the country. Their oil is not typical of the Brent Sweet Crude which is the best kind of crude oil to refine.
This new technology stuff is BS. The petroleum company is feeding you a stack of lies like they have every year since they have been operating.
It's almost like believing in Trump to believe that there is oil down there that will save the Bahamas. There isn't. If there was, Shell, Texaco, Esso and the lot of them would be down here like white on rice.
realitycheck242 5 years ago
Oil is there but is it in commercial quantities ?.....that's the million dollar question.
Bahama7 5 years ago
They will hit oil first drill. Theres probably 5 to 10 big fields off the bahamas undiscovered.
Porcupine 5 years ago
A wonderful commentary on the state of The Bahamas. Begging for money so that we can continue to contribute to that which is drowning us. While I hope banker is right, this says even more about our mentality. Makes me think there really is no hope for us here. No vision.
Bahama7 5 years ago
Vision to fix the economy Comrade Porcupine!
Porcupine 5 years ago
Of course. Like burning the village to save the people. Fix the economy. What is wrong with the economy? Why is it so? Finding oil will solve this? A poor education affects more than just children.
Bahama7 5 years ago
This is what’s wrong - how we gonna pay this off ??!
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2019/oct…
banker 5 years ago
Oil is the answer. But not petroleum, but rather cannabis oil. It will be legal almost everywhere in the Western Hemisphere in 10 years. If we start now, and start exporting high grade cannabis, both medicinal and recreational, we could climb out of shiite-hole country status.
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