Above: An offshore rig

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Canadian firm Sagres Energy has received an extension on its licences in Jamaica, continuing the firm’s exploration according to three production-sharing agreements with the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.

The three agreements cover the right to explore and develop Blocks 9, 13 and 14, which cover approximately 8,864 square kilometres off Jamaica’s offshore waters.

“We continue to be excited by the potential of the La Concepcion prospect,” said Sagres President and CEO Gary Wine.

According to Wine, an independent evaluation of that prospect established a gross mean prospective resource estimate of 3 billion barrels of oil.

“We look forward to advancing this project to the drilling stage, and we are holding discussions with potential partners,” he said.

Jamaica is not alone in the region in looking for oil offshore. The Bahamas, too, has a potentially large amount of oil in its offshore waters, and Guyana has several US firms either reportedly interested or already planning to explore in the country, including ExxonMobil and another Canadian firm, CGX.