Oil and gas firm Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) has as raised the cost estimates for the drilling operations at the Perseverance #1 well, offshore Bahamas.
However, the increase in cost estimates by approximately 15%, to between $24m to $28m for the well operations comes as BPC and drilling contractor Stena Drilling have decided to implement enhanced Covid-19 mitigation measures.
The measures include heightened isolation and testing measures for all crew and personnel; extended mandatory quarantine in secure hotel facilities; and private charter flights.
The Perseverance #1 offshore oil exploration well is planned to be drilled starting in late 2020 at a location in the far southern territorial waters of The Bahamas, adjacent to the Cuba-Bahamas maritime border.
Perseverance #1 holds recoverable oil resource of 767 million barrels
As per the estimates, the Perseverance #1 location has prospective recoverable oil resource of 767 million barrels, with an upside of 1.444 billion barrels.
BPC CEO Simon Potter said: “Given the ever-evolving and escalating Covid-19 situation around the world, the sobering reality is that preventing the Covid-19 virus spreading onto the Perseverance #1 drilling installation in the first place is dramatically more cost effective than having to deal with it once it has arrived offshore.
“Hence the considerable efforts put in by BPC, Stena and participating contractors and service companies to develop even more stringent measures to detect and diminish the risk of infection, which are now being implemented, but which will come at a cost.”
The Perseverance #1 well, which will be located in water approximately 520m, is planned to be drilled to a target depth of 4,822m.
Earlier, the company said that the drilling of well could reach 5,600m, enabling the evaluation of multiple reservoir horizons throughout the entire stratigraphic column below the Tertiary cover.
In a press statement, the company earlier said: “The well has been designed specifically as an exploration well, with the sole objective of establishing the presence of hydrocarbons through a range of tests that will be conducted as the well is drilled.
“Perseverance #1 has not been designed to ever operate as a production well, such that at the conclusion of the drilling program the well will be permanently sealed and then abandoned.”
