The block covers a total area of around 15,000km2, and is situated in water depths from 20 to 1000 meters
Bahamas Petroleum secures exploration licence for the Area OFF-1 block. (Credit: Pixabay/Keri Jackson)
Oil and gas exploration company, Bahamas Petroleum Company has been awarded an exploration licence for the Area OFF-1 block, offshore Uruguay by the Uruguayan national regulatory agency, ANCA.
The AREA OFF-1 block covers a total area of around 15,000km2, and is located in water depths from 20 to 1000 meters, approximately 100km off the Uruguayan coast.
The block contains a management estimated resource potential of up to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE).
The OFF-1 exploration play is said to be similar in nature to the prolific Guyana – Suriname basin, which is currently being explored by many oil companies.
Bahamas Petroleum to undertake new geotechnical studies on the licence
During the initial four-year exploration period for OFF-1 licence, Bahamas Petroleum will reprocess around 2,000km of legacy 2D seismic and perform many new geotechnical studies, at an estimated cost of approximately $200,000 annually.
Bahamas Petroleum stated: “OFF-1 has many operational and subsurface similarities to BPC’s licences in The Bahamas – the Uruguay and Bahamas acreage is in similar water depths, both contain multiple, lower exploration risk structural plays in addition to the high impact fans, and both have material volume scope and extensive running room.”
The company expects that OFF-1 holds the capacity to generate similar value uplift to its existing licences in The Bahamas.
The rig will be used by the company to drill Perseverance-1 exploration well, scheduled to commence as early as the fourth quarter of 2020.