Sagres Energy seeking joint-venture partner to explore for Jamaican oil
Published:Wednesday | April 27, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Sagres Energy, the Canadian oil exploration company licensed to explore for oil in Jamaica's waters, said it has been granted a nine-month extension to finalise the survey and data collection phase of the project, and is currently seek-ing a partner to pro-ceed with drilling.
Sagres owns 100 per cent of blocks 9, 13 and 14 located in the Walton Basin in the Pedro Banks. The company believes the blocks might hold some three billion barrels of reserves, but was careful to note that these were prospective, not proven, reserves.
"Prospective resources have both an associated chance of discovery and a chance of develop-ment. There is no certainty that any portion of the resources will be discovered. If discovered, there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources," Sagres said in a statement Monday.
The initial exploration period, which should have wrapped up in March, will now end December 15, by which time the company must determine whether to enter phase two of the contract, which requires Sagres Energy to put in place, by December 15, 2013, a well for each of the three designated offshore research blocks demarcated by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).
phase one completed
Sagres said in a statement on Monday that it has met all the work commitments under phase one of the project, which included a bathymetric survey, or the study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors, as well as geologic, seismic and environmental surveys of the three blocks.
Contacted Tuesday, Dr Ryan Ramsook, country manager for Sagres Energy, said that although they have completed all the work required under phase one of the project, the extension was sought because the company was actively seeking a partner as well as fine-tuning data from the research.
"Several international energy companies have signed confi-dentiality agreements with Sagres in order to access the data for the blocks and evaluate the potential for a joint venture," read the statement issued in Canada.
In the statement, David Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Sagres Energy, was quoted as saying that "there is renewed interest in exploration in Jamaica, with nine of 11 previously drilled wells having oil shows", as well as three potential source rocks and a new seismic survey revealing more than 10 kilometres of sedimentary fill in a previously unmapped deep-water area of the lower Walton Basin. "Jamaica is ready to commercialise its resource potential with refining capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil per day; electricity generators that accept gas, oil, or biodiesel fuels; established bauxite, shipping, and cement industries; and a geographic position central to the major global marine trade routes," Johnson said.
In August last year, Sagres Energy announced the results of an independent evaluation undertaken by Chapman Petroleum Engin-eering which showed a gross prospective resource estimate of three billion barrels of oil in the shallow waters of the Pedro Banks in the three blocks the company has been exploring.
Acting group managing director of the PCJ, Nigel Logan, was not reached for comment.
Each of the three companies granted licences to explore for oil in Jamaica is required to pay US$4 per square kilometre for the area explored.