Challenger Energy Group PLC (formerly Bahamas Petroleum Company) continues to negotiate the final amounts owed to the government for its leases in The Bahamas while also still negotiating to extend those leases for another three years, the company said in its 2020 annual report and accounts released yesterday, adding that it has relinquished the lease for the Miami license in the northern Bahamas.
The annual report also revealed that the company continues to owe money to service providers for the work done on the Perseverance-1 test well the company completed early this year.
While the company did not find commercial quantities of oil at that test site, which cost the company $45 million, the company’s chief executive officer Eytan Uliel said in the report that there remains the distinct possibility of commercial quantities of oil within the remaining four license areas in the southern Bahamas.
If CEG is successful in renegotiating a renewal of the licenses, it said that during the next three-year exploration period, the company would take a “drill or drop” position.
“Looking forward in The Bahamas, it is worth noting that whilst Perseverance-1 may not have resulted in the commercial discovery we hoped for, a substantial amount of data and learning has been obtained from the drill,” Uliel said.
“We are still integrating all of this information but it provides encouraging support for the possibility of a deeper Jurassic oil play.
“As I have observed in other forums, we had hoped for ‘instant gratification’ with Perseverance-1, which was not the case. However, it is important to remember that in our industry, several exploration wells are often required before the potential of a frontier basin is unlocked, and based on what we have learned from Perseverance-1, we continue to believe that our licenses in The Bahamas are prospective.
“We have thus shifted our focus to the future of this project: (i) renewing the licenses into a third, three-year exploration period, and (ii) securing a partner – ideally a large industry player – to provide expertise and capital for the next phase of activity.”
Uliel said that as the company looks to 2022, it is determined to deliver value from The Bahamas leases.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
