United farms into Tullow’s license offshore Jamaica

Oil and gas company United Oil & Gas (UOG) has made an an agreement to farm-in to the Tullow Jamaica-operated Walton-Morant license, offshore Jamaica.

Subject to approval from the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), United has signed an agreement with Tullow to farm-in to the Walton-Morant license at a 20% equity interest, UOG said on Monday.

Tullow entered the Walton-Morant license, which covers an area in excess of 32,000km2, in October 2014. In addition to securing a portfolio of legacy 2D seismic data, Tullow also acquired a further 3,650 km of 2D seismic in 2016 and 2017.

According to Unite, interpretation of the data set has identified attractive Cretaceous and Tertiary aged clastic and carbonate reservoir targets and Tullow now intends to conduct a 2,000 km2 3D seismic survey in H1 2018 focusing on the high-graded Colibri lead.

The Walton Morant License, offshore Jamaica, offers a commanding Caribbean exploration opportunity with access to play diversity across three geological basins. Only 11 wells have been drilled in the area to date, and despite difficulties with well placement due to a lack of seismic control, 10 of these encountered hydrocarbon shows, United noted.

Recent work, including extensive onshore fieldwork, has confirmed the presence of all the elements required for a working petroleum system, and has also identified a thermogenically derived offshore oil seep close to the main prospect of interest, providing further confidence that there is the potential to find significant commercial volumes within the licence.

Brian Larkin, United CEO, commented: “We are delighted to announce our new Jamaican partnership with Tullow Oil. At our time of listing, we outlined a clear strategy of building a low-risk business in Europe whilst also adding blue sky exploration upside in Latin America and Africa. This acreage is well known to the United team and we are very excited at the prospect of participating in this high impact campaign.

“The current low-cost environment has allowed United to take a material 20% equity position in this high potential frontier exploration license and we look forward to working with Tullow Oil in the coming months to advance the 2017 and 2018 work programs. In addition to our new Jamaican interest, we continue to evaluate further potential farm-in and acquisition opportunities and we look forward to updating our shareholders in the coming months.”

United’s investment will involve paying a 20% share of costs from November 1, 2017, into Phase 1c of the current exploration program.