Bahamas

Bahamas Petroleum Co. PLC, Isle of Man, UK, plans to shoot 2D and 3D seismic off the Bahamas in the next few months and hopes to mature a prospect for drilling as early as 2011 pending government approval.

Sept. 30, 2010

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 30 – Bahamas Petroleum Co. PLC, Isle of Man, UK, plans to shoot 2D and 3D seismic off the Bahamas in the next few months and hopes to mature a prospect for drilling as early as 2011 pending government approval.

The company’s blocks in partnership with Statoil, gazetted in mid-2010, are in 400-500 m of water and suitable rigs are widely available (see map, OGJ, July 13, 2009, p. 34). The first seismic shot in the area since 1987 provided encouragement indicating large structures with hydrocarbon indications.

The company noted that geological formations in the area are more stable and in shallower water than those at the Macondo prospect that resulted in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The company assisted the Bahamas government by performing a baseline environmental study of the coastline to determine if oil from the BP spill would hit Bahamian shores, which it has not. The study found tar balls and evidence of oil washed ashore in the southern Bahamas that were not from the gulf spill.