Coronavirus sees Bahamas Petroleum push back drilling plans

The AIM-traded firm said that, as a result of the “rapidly unfolding impact” the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic was having on operations, the start of drilling was now expected to be in late May or early June, compared to its prior estimate of April.

It added that, notwithstanding the recent decline in oil prices, farm-in discussions in the context of its overall funding strategy were continuing to advance.

“We have made consistent progress toward drilling of the company's 100% owned-and-operated Perseverance #1 well, targeting recoverable prospective resources of [between] 0.7 billion and 1.4 billion barrels of oil,” said chief executive officer Simon Potter.

“As a prudent operator our primary objective is a safe well, best delivered by the ability to drill uninterrupted by external events for the period of the drill plan.

“Such a continuous operation is also the most cost effective.”

Potter said it was in that context that the firm reassessed the timing for the start of drilling, given the “widespread disruption” being caused by the global response to the Covid-19 virus.

“Whilst incredibly frustrating given all the hard work undertaken to get to the current state of drill-readiness, the responsible thing to do is to slightly reschedule commencement of operations, to later in the second quarter of 2020, to a time when continuous delivery of operations can be better assured whilst also still enabling operations to be completed before the peak risk period of the Bahamian hurricane season.

“Pleasingly, farm-out discussions in the context of our overall funding strategy continue to advance. We will update shareholders as appropriate over the coming weeks.”

At 1018 GMT, shares in Bahamas Petroleum Company were down 5.62% at 2.5p.