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Baker Hughes to supply wellheads for offshore Bahamas drilling campaign
Bahamas Petroleum Co. has ordered equipment from Baker Hughes for its first exploration well next year offshore the Bahamas.

Nov 21st, 2019



Bahamas Petroleum Co. (BPC) has ordered equipment from Baker Hughes for its first exploration well next year offshore the Bahamas.

The wellhead set, contingency well head set, and 36-in. conductor casing are covered under a master services agreement.

Simon Potter, CEO of BPC, said: “In ordering these high value, critical path, long-lead items, along with the other multiple work streams ongoing, management is taking demonstrative steps to ensure we remain on track for drilling to commence as per our previously announced drill schedule.”

BPC re-assessing potential of southern Bahamas play

The revival of exploration off northern Cuba has rekindled interest in the Bahamas. Although no wells have been drilled off the islands since 1986, new geological studies suggest strong analogies among producing provinces from Cuba and southern Florida to giant fields such as Cantarell in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Spearheading the review is BPC, formed in 2005 by Alan Burns, who also pioneered deepwater exploration off Mauritania with his previous company, Hardman Resources. BPC is the only company active offshore the Bahamas, operating four contiguous licenses on the median line with northeast Cuba, and the Miami license between Grand Bahama Island and the Florida coast. The combined acreage covers an area of 15,676 sq km (6,053 sq mi).


Over the past three years BPC has compiled a detailed inventory of the islands’ exploration history based on all available data, including 7,000 km (4,350 mi) of seismic lines, well cores, and rock samples dating back to the 1950s. Using contemporary imaging techniques, it has identified 22 leads in its five offshore licenses, with potential for large traps containing structures of up to 500 MMboe.

The company has an office in the Bahamian capital, Nassau, with two full-time staff and a legal team on retainer. “As a very small, start-up operation,” says COO Paul Crevello, “we had to demonstrate to the government our ability to perform both technically and financially before securing our licenses.”

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Bahamas Expects to Strike Oil After Cuba Exploration Failed

April19, 2013

Bahamas Petroleum Co. (BPC), the only explorer searching for oil off the Atlantic archipelago, expects to find crude even after efforts off nearby Cuba failed.

A seismic study by Bahamas Petroleum, or BPC, showed that the Great Bahama Bank may have oil at shallower water depths, making it easier to drill, and a layer of salt keeping the crude in place, Chief Executive Officer Simon Potter said in London.

BPC is looking for a partner to raise at least $100 million to drill the country’s first exploration well in about 27 years. It holds five licenses covering more than 4 billion barrels of potential oil resources and is seeking three more with Statoil ASA. (STL) The nation in March allowed exploration to go ahead on the condition a referendum be called before the first oil is pumped.

“Let’s go and bake the cake, let’s establish commercial reserves,” Potter said in an interview. Should a discovery be made, “there’ll be a much more positive issue to be managing.”

Oil extraction off the Bahamas, a tourism-based economy, may help the nation reduce its mounting debt burden. Government borrowings rose to 53 percent of gross domestic product last year from 32 percent in 2007, according to a December report by Moody’s Investors Service.

BPC’s planned well, to be started in about a year’s time, will target a “distinct” structure about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Cuba, Potter said.

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Le tourisme et ses activités induites représentent, selon les chiffres officiels bahaméens, 60 % des sept milliards de dollars du PIB des Bahamas.

Tout près de la Floride, les Bahamas restent, bien sûr, la destination exotique préférée des Américains, qui représentent, selon le Ministère du tourisme de l'archipel, plus de 80 % des 4,6 millions de visiteurs annuels.