The Bahamian umbrella environmental group ‘Our Islands, Our Future’ has said that it will take legal action in relation to a judicial review it is seeking if the Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) starts a planned offshore drilling programme.
The activist group said that it will seek an injunction if the company does not halt its planned activities pending a judicial review of the environmental authorisation that allowed it to prospect. The company intends beginning operations next month on its Perseverance#1 well on its deep-water Cooper license about 90 miles South West of Andros.
In a recent update to its investors, BPC had noted that it intended spudding an exploratory well within a matter of weeks, completing all related activities prior to mid-April 2021, and expected the arrival of the drill ship, Stena IceMAX, in The Bahamas before the end of the month and work to commence by 15 December.
In the statement the company said that assuming a real US$40 oil price, a “successful development scenario of approximately 0.7bn barrels” meant that “the project remains robustly economic” with proven oil and gas reserves “exceeding US$2.5bn”. It also said that that this could result in “an aggregate revenue stream of over US$5bn” flowing to The Bahamas government in royalty income and other payments over the life of the project”.