Sagres begins mapping oil drilling site - Still hunting for a partner
Published:Friday | June 24, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Steven Jackson, Business Reporter
Sagres Energy is mapping an offshore oil drill site by Pedro Banks in a bid to fast track drilling, but its exploration timetable is still contingent on it finding a partner, the Canadian company said this week.
The site lies some 120 kilometres off the coast of Port Kaiser within one of three contiguous "blocks" to which it bought the rights from Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica. The blocks span 8,800 kilometre-squared of sea and have already displayed promising investigations, the company said.
"In Jamaica, Sagres continues to look for joint-venture partners on its 9, 13 and 14 offshore blocks. In preparation for the drilling of a possible well on its large La Concepcion prospect, the company is in the process of initiating an environmental impact assessment and site survey of the drill location so that drilling may proceed as quickly as possible once a partner is found," the company said in a market filing this week.
Sagres holds undeveloped oil and natural gas concessions in Colombia, Jamaica and Guyana, while producing oil and natural gas properties in Canada.
This week, the company announced a more aggressive programme in Latin America, focusing primarily on Colombia, Peru and Argentina; while also offering stock options for its directors and officers.
The company recorded a net loss of CDN$3.3 million at its nine-month period ending September 2010, a further decline from losses of CDN$783,000 in the year-prior period.
Sagres has identified possible reserves inside its blocks. If found to be recoverable in commercial quantities, Pedro Banks could represent, at best, 2.7 billion barrels of oil, or enough to satisfy Jamaica's needs for 90 years. Jamaica consumes energy equivalent to 25-30 million barrels of oil annually according to government data.
It would also make the island a significant exporter with reserves at one-third of OPEC member Ecuador's reserves, based on that oil grouping statistics. The drilling, however, requires a multimillion-dollar investment to which Sagres wants a joint-venture partner, presumably to spread the risk.
Sagres is party to three production-sharing agreements with the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica covering the right to explore and develop the three blocks by March 2013.
Two years ago, Sagres, in conjunction with CGG-Veritas a seismic geo-physics company, acquired shallow and deep-water surveys of Jamaica's south coast.
Seismic data is used by the oil and gas industry in its exploration and development of new oil reserves. The deep water surveys provided the "first seismic data off the south of Jamaica and revealed a huge sedimentary basin with large structures and significant potential," Sagres says on its website.
It's not yet certain whether that basin contains large quantities of oil, but the data indicates a substance with similar seismic characteristics.
Sagres Energy was founded in 2009 as a private company in Canada. It currently has three subsidiaries: Sagres Energy Barbados, Sagres Energy Guyana, and Rainville Energy Corporation.