Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Business Writer
Dr. Raymond Wright, energy expert and consultant to the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica. - file
High oil-consuming Jamaica could have commercial hydrocarbon by the end of 2010 as a number of prospects, particularly offshore, are showing positive indicators, according to Dr. Raymond Wright, consultant at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).
"There are approximately 50 structures in the Walton Basin of variable size which could contain hydrocarbons and the largest of these structures based on volumes and porosity in the carbonate reservoir could contain 28 billion barrels (of oil) and this is an unrisked number," according to Dr. Wright.
In a presentation on Jamaica's 2007 exploration activities to the IBC Energy Caribbean conference in Port-of- Spain last week, Wright said an important question was whether the area will be more gas or oil prone since the country's economic, commercial and industrial plans were leaning towards utilising more gas.
The expectation then "is that there could be a positive commercial find of oil and/or gas in Jamaica by the end of the decade, " he told the two-day conference.
Speaking later with Wednesday Business, he reiterated that the prospects were promising.
"It's just a matter of finding out whether they're in commercial quantities of oil and gas in these prospects, but they're structurally very promising," he said.
"We are also in offshore southern Jamaica. It's quite gas-prone so there is a possibility of finding commercial quantities of oil and gas, gas in particular offshore. Who knows, maybe if we find enough, an LNG project of the future will not be necessary and that's one of the reason why the LNG project is using a floating platform so in the event that we were to make finds, we would be bringing the gas into the same location using the pipelines onshore, but you can move the floating platform for LNG and sell them somewhere else."
The former PCJ Group managing director expects Finder Exploration PTY Limited/Gippsland Offshore Petroleum Limited to drill at least two wells and Rainville of Calvary, Canada, one before the end of 2010.
The Finder/Gippsland Joint Venture of Australia has eexploration licences for five blocks 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12, while Rainville obtained exploration licences for three blocks 9, 13 and 14.
David Barrett, regional representative of Finder Caribbean, also told Wednesday Business that the optimism over a commercial discovery of both oil and gas comes from a number of factors.
"One, is that in the past, we've had gas seeps, one of which was presented in Windsor and that has been seeping for over 100 years," he said.
"It has been proven that it's of thermogenic origin and not a bio-gas origin, so all the chemical tests have been done to show that, and if it has been leaking for that long, so consistently from that location, it's a positive indicator."
One of Finder's shallower blocks has also indicated gas seep while a flow inclusion study suggests that some of its blocks could be more gas than oil prone.
"Our expectation for gas is not unreasonable and they're not flippant. A lot depends on how you derisk the area and if we have a 20-metre cover, a seal, there is a possibility we could have in one particular block about two to 2.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf), so that's pretty encouraging," said Barrett.
"We want to make sure that that gas is still there because you know you can form your reservoir, you can have your seal, you could have had the source in the past and you could have the migration but if for any reason the gas or oil has seeped out from the edges or elsewhere by faults or other reason, then you actually reduce the possibility of having that resource.
Drilling phase
"What we're saying, the structures are there, the conditions required for the formation of the hydrocarbons are there, both gas and or oil, so our work now is to lead us to the drilling phase where we will actually prove that what we expect to find is actually there or not, " Barrett said.
Since it plans to begin its first drilling in 2009, Finder/Gippsland may conduct a 3D seismic and also gas studies to determine the commerciality if gas is found, how it can bring it onshore economically and who will be the users.
"Our efforts might actually be able to bring gas, if we find gas on line within about the same time, maybe a year or so more but close to the time when it was projected or hoped that Trinidad would be able to bring gas or Venezuela, so those are important features in the commercial assessment of the prospect," Barrett added.
Discussions
The joint venture has also held discussions with multinational corporations, national corporations and private sector financiers that might be interested in farming and a few confidentiality agreements have already been signed.
"Some of those entities have actually come to Australia and gone to our data room to see what is actually there and make their own assessments. We still have very favourable response, them having gone and had a look at the data for themselves," he added.
In his presentation, Wright said the Hong Kong-based company, Proteam which negotiated Production Sharing Arrangements following the 2007 bid round for four offshore blocks 1, 5, 8, 17, has agreed to an aggressive exploration programme.
They intend to complete seismic work by the end of 2008 and the first well drilled by the end of the fourth year of the exploration period.
Having committed 12 of the 20 offshore blocks to exploration companies, Dr. Wright said the next step will be conducting a multi-client survey that would cover the remaining blocks, the intention of which is to obtain adequate seismic signatures in the deep seated Cretaceous sequence.
Wright who has been in the energy industry spanning over three decades said it is important that Jamaica finds hydrocarbon and noted that Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced a month ago that by 2017, Jamaica should reduce its import of oil by 50 per cent.
"In order to do this, we have of course to diversify into coal and natural gas maybe as LNG and perhaps as CNG for the electricity sector," Wright told Wednesday Business.
"In respect of the transport sector, oil will always continue for the next two or three decades to be the fuel of choice because there is no replacement, so we would like to see some of our oil that we demand or require come from local sources."
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