With the scramble now on for United Oil & Gas Limited to find a partner to continue exploring the Walton-Morant Basin ahead of the expiration of its licence next month, the company is now awaiting word from the Government of Jamaica as to whether it will renew or extend the permit to pursue its farm out activities.

The upstream oil and gas company in an update on its website last month outlined that a “preferred potential partner” which had expressed interest in participating in the exploration opportunity “no longer wish[es] to pursue further discussions in relation to…the Walton Morant licence”.

As such, United Oil & Gas stated that it will now focus on “the recent positive interest that has been shown by other parties in potentially participating in this high impact exploration opportunity and United and our advisors will continue in our efforts to secure a partner.” It will continue “to engage with the Jamaican authorities to secure an extension to the current licence period which expires at the end of January 2024”.

The company expects that an extension will facilitate undertaking “additional technical work that would further de-risk the licence prior to the drilling of the exploration well. This work is aimed at materially enhancing the risked value of the company’s interest in the licence.”

Responding to queries from the Jamaica Observer, Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Daryl Vaz confirmed that his ministry has received an application from the oil exploration company to extend its licence.

“It is under consideration now based on formal application. That decision will be made soon,” he revealed.

Asked when he anticipates the ministry will reach a decision on the application to extend the licence, Vaz said, “This month!”

United Oil & Gas has been in search of a partner to co-finance its exploration of the Walton-Morant Basin since Tullow Oil pulled out of the licence in 2020. At the time, Tullow Oil owned 80 per cent of the licence to drill.

The basin covers 22,400 square kilometres of water extending from the southern coasts of St Thomas to Westmoreland. So far, United Oil & gas has mapped out the area and has identified numerous plays and prospects for drilling with 3-D data for 2,250 square kilometres.

“The drill-ready, high-impact Colibri prospect alone contains mean prospective resources of 406 million barrels,” the company detailed.

Another area called the Thunderball is estimated to contain 603 million barrels of oil.

Should the Government of Jamaica approve the renewal of the licence, this will be the third time that United Oil & Gas has received an extension since losing Tullow Oil as a partner. The permit expired in July 2020 and again January 2022.

United Oil & Gas began farming out the Walton-Morant Basin in 2017 after acquiring 20 per cent interest in the licence from its then partner, which received an exploration licence in 2016.

“Although the potential partner that we had been in discussions with for a number of months has taken the decision to withdraw from the process at this time, we remain committed to delivering value from this potentially high-impact exploration opportunity. Our efforts are now firmly focused on the other parties that we have engaged positively with through our process with a view to securing a partner for United to take this project forward, in parallel to securing an extension to the current phase of the licence,” the company’s CEO Brian Larkin stated.