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Caribbean L 16 ife, Aug. 30, 2019
The Bahamas’s Prime Minister, Hubert Minnis. Associated Press / Martin Mejia
The Bahamas pursues
search for oil, gas
By Bert Wilkinson
The Bahamas has become the latest
of several Caribbean community
nations joining the hunt for commercial
quantities of oil and gas and has
signed up with a British-based company
to drill its first exploration well
next year.
The Bahamas Petroleum Company
(BPC) said this week that it had signed
off on several agreements with Seadrill,
one of the world’s largest offshore drilling
rig firms, to bring in an ultra high
technology drilling ship to spud its first
offshore well. It is also teaming up with
the infamous Halliburton company to
provide support services, equipment,
tools and drilling plans for the state
firm officials said.
In moving to do so, The Bahamas
now joins Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada
among CARICOM nations ramping up
efforts either to conduct seismic testing
work offshore or are preparing for the
first set of exploration wells in the coming
months.
Of these, Jamaica is ahead of the pack
as Tullow Oil of the United Kingdom
has already completed seismic work off
Jamaica’s south coast. Local fishermen
constantly point officials to fresh water
surface oil seeps. Authorities earlier
this year also investigated oil and gas
seeps at inland sites, raising hopes that
a commercial find is just months away.
Grenada on the other hand is dealing
with Russian oil firms. Seismic work
done in the past year also indicate the
presence of hydrocarbons according to
Prime Minister, Keith Mitchell.
Barbados, meanwhile has done much
of the preliminary work to get Australia
based Billiton and Repsol of Spain as
interested partners in drilling offshore,
especially in waters between the island
and oil and gas-rich Trinidad.
Barbados has for decades been an
oil producer from a small amount of
inland wells, yielding about 1,600 barrels
per day. The other main producer is
Suriname, also benefitting from inland
wells in western Suriname near Guyana
at the rate of about 16,000 barrels
per day. It is yet to find offshore but
the wild shout across the river border
in Guyana where Exxon and Tullow oil
have combined for 14 humungous wells
have raised the hopes of similar finds in
the much heralded Guyana-Suriname
Basin. Actual production in Guyana
is set for mid-November, making the
country the world’s newest and most
exciting producer.
Bahamian officials say the exploration
work will begin “with or without”
a major “farm in “partner like Exxon or
Chevron as government has already tied
up the framework deal with Seadrill
for the rig and support services from
Halliburton. Costs could run up to $50
million that it will try to raise for the
drilling campaign.
All this is happening as Guyana, set
to easily become the region’s largest
producer in a matter of weeks, is preparing
for the arrival this week of a massive
Floating Production Storage and
Offloading vessel (FPSO) which will be
used as the main storage and processing
facility once production begins in
earnest. The Liza Destiny was built in
Singapore and is expected to pull up
near the first set of wells to be hooked
up to underground systems. President
David Granger and top energy officials
are scheduled to fly to the FPSO at the
weekend for a ceremony that would predate
first oil by just a matter of weeks.
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