Bahamas Petroleum Company PLC says Perseverance-1 is on track to spud in 2020

() told investors that the Perseverance-1 exploration well is on track to spud before the end of 2020.

The company is advancing the major exploration project, with a target estimated at around 700mln barrels (upside case stated at 1.4bn barrels), on a 100%-owned basis and it noted that all material contracts are in place.

Perseverance-1 will be drilled by the Stena IceMAX vessel which is described as one of the most technically capable drill ships in the world. It is slated to mobilise to the Bahamas from the Canary Islands before the end of November 2020.

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Once underway, the well programme is expected to run for between 45 and 60 days.

The company noted that specific transportation, isolation and quarantine protocols are in place to minimise any risk of Covid-19 disruption.

“Many shareholders have been extremely patient and have stayed the distance, as has the majority of the management team, and we are now in the position to deliver the Perseverance-1 exploration well in compliance with our long-held exploration licences in The Bahamas,” said Simon Potter, BPC chief executive.

“Perseverance-1 is a potentially basin-opening well, with the kind of scale and associated value uplift exposure rarely offered outside of oil majors.”

Potter added: “At the same time, our activities, in the event of success, have the capacity to be economically transformative for the nation of The Bahamas, and could ultimately contribute billions of dollars in royalty revenues to the national treasury, at a time when the dual impact of recent hurricanes and the Covid-19 pandemic has been especially hard-felt by most Bahamians.”