Bahamas Petroleum Company, the oil and gas exploration company licenced to explore for oil in The Bahamas has announced a new exploration date of mid-December, 2020. The April 2020 date was postponed due to COVID-19. Simon Potter, Chief Executive Officer of Bahamas Petroleum Company, said:
"In March 2020, we were within weeks of commencing the drilling of our Perseverance #1 exploration well when we were compelled to defer due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Immediately we undertook a range of activities necessary to reschedule activity toward the end of 2020 and into the first quarter of 2021, consistent with our licence obligations (as extended for the declared force majeure event), by which time we expect the worst of the broad suite of impacts of the pandemic to be behind us.
To this end we are have entered into a rig contract with Stena Drilling, which provides a firm series of parameters on rig rate, provision of mobilisation and demobilisation costs, and defines a revised drilling window of 15 December 2020 to 1 February 2021.”
BPC now estimates the total cost of Perseverance #1 to be in the range of $21 million to $25 million, a material reduction from the most recent prior comparable estimate.
In addition, the Company continues to assess there to be up to $5 million in potential operating contingency costs, and has scoped up to $5 million of provisional costs for additional formation evaluation work that the Company could elect to incur in a success case.
However, the extent to which these contingent / provisional elements are utilised will not be known until closer to or during drilling operations, and decisions in relation to incurring these items will be based on capital availability at that time.
Overview BPC has an obligation to drill an initial exploration well prior to the conclusion of the current exploration period of its four conjoined licences in the southern territorial waters of The Bahamas.
That period was due to expire on 31 December 2020, but is extendable based upon declaration of force majeure occasioned by the Bahamian and global response to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, with the Company having submitted a force majeure notice to the Government of The Bahamas in early March 2020, in accordance with the terms of its licences. www.bpcplc.com for further information.
Bahamas Petroleum Company (bpcplc.com) has entered into an agreement with Stena DrillMax Ice Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stena Drilling Limited, one of the world's foremost independent drilling contractors, for the provision of a sixth-generation drilling rig. BPC will commence the drilling of their Perseverance 1 exploration well mid-December 2020 for a period of between 30 – 45 days.
Simon Potter, CEO Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC), has announced the new oil exploration well drill date as mid-December2020.
