Garfield
Robinson
Philip Pauwell (second left), the minister of
commerce science and technology, greets Dag Sigurd Stensholt
(right), Fugro vessel operation manager, at a press conference
yesterday to announce oil exploration activities slated to begin
today. Also in photo are Ruth Potopsingh (left), Petroleum Corporation
of Jamaica (PCJ) group managing director and former PCJ director,
Dr Raymond Wright.
By Taneisha Davidson
Kingston
Petroleumworld.com
02 19 06
Another
search for oil begins today
JAMAICA
will today, for the fifth time in 36 years, be involved in another
oil and gas exploration.
But Commerce, Science and Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell
told reporters at a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus
Hotel in Kingston that an Australian company - Finder Exploration
Limited - will foot the US$3-million bill.
"We
are taking a different approach this time around," Minister
Pauwell said. "We do not intend to invest in the project.
In fact, it will not cost the country a single cent," he
said, pointing out that between 1980 and 1983 when Jamaica was
involved in gas exploration US$18 million was spent in that
effort.
Finder
Exploration Limited, which was granted a licence to undertake
exploration activities in four blocks offshore, has contracted
Furgo - one of the largest seismic contractors in the world
- to begin the first phase of the exploration exercise. The
company will be collecting seismic geophysical data for the
oil and gas exploration activities using a Russian seismic vessel
- the Akademik Shatskiy.
A
new seismic survey, Paulwell said, will be conducted offshore
southern Jamaica, beginning today, on four blocks - seven, 10,
11 and 12 on the map.
It
will take six to seven months for the information to be processed,
after which it will be sent to one of Furgo's processing centres
to be examined further.
"The
processed data, which will be available six to seven months
after the survey has begun, will inform the licensee, Finder
Exploration Pty Limited, on the oil and gas prospectively of
the four blocks that they have committed to explore," said
Paulwell. "The decision as to whether an exploratory well
for oil and gas will be drilled on any of these four blocks
is dependent in large on the results of the seismic survey,"
he added.
Last
October, three companies - Finder Exploration Limited, Rainville
Limited of Calgary Canada and Onslow Limited from the UK - were
named to search for oil off the island's shore. In addition,
the government has already allocated 12 of the 24 exploration
blocks under royalty and profit-sharing agreements.
Exploration
activities in Jamaica are conducted under a product sharing
arrangement whereby the licensee pays a 12.5 per cent royalty
to the government, either in cash or kind, and splits the oil
and gas produced with the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.
The split would be based on the volume of oil or gas produced,
as well as the depth of water in which the production takes
place.
Dag
Sigurd Stensholt, Fugro vessel operation manager said the seismic
survey would not interfere with the livelihood of Jamaican fishermen
in the area to be surveyed nor will it pose any threat to the
environment. He said that subsequent to a meeting with the Fisheries
Division in the agriculture ministry some areas were restricted
in order to protect the fishermen.
"We
want to make sure that we are not destroying any fishing gears
and the life of the fisherman and we are not damaging our equipment,"
he said.
Pauwell
said the National Environment and Planning Agency had granted
the permission for the seismic survey to be conducted.
Stensholt
explained that seismic acquisition uses sound pulses which penetrate
the seabed and are reflected by them. The rate at which the
pulses are reflected will help geophysicists to distinguish
between oil, gas, sand and rock.
It also indicates where there are some dome-like structures,
which could have trapping mechanisms that may contain oil or
natural gas.
davidsont@jamaicaobserver.com
