Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) and Columbus energy have announced an all share merger. The merger will create a ‘Caribbean and Atlantic margin-focused oil and gas champion’, BPC told investors.
This ‘champion’ will own stakes in five producing fields, two appraisal and development projects in Trinidad including a brand-new discovery, a high-impact (800mln to +1bn barrel) exploration well in the Bahamas, and expansive frontier exploration acreage offshore Uruguay and Suriname according to Proactive Investors.
Leo Koot, Executive Chairman of Columbus Energy, said, ‘Following a period of intense due diligence and negotiation, we are delighted and pleased to have received the firm intention from Bahamas Petroleum Company (‘BPC’) to merge our two companies. The merger is ideal in terms of asset overlap and will create a combined company that is stronger than the sum of its two parts’.
He added that 'The combined group will create a larger, more diversified oil and gas champion for the Caribbean and South America, with assets that range across the full spectrum of oil and gas activities, from exploration through appraisal and development to production’. Leo Koot will now join the Board of BPC as a Non-Executive Director.
Simon Potter, Chief Executive Officer of BPC, said, ‘The announcement sees the maturing of our company into an Atlantic margin-focused, fullcycle exploration and production company with multiple opportunities over the next 12-24 months for generating shareholder value across an asset base covering The Bahamas, Trinidad, Suriname and Uruguay’.
‘In one bold step we have given ourselves a production base in Trinidad from which to generate cash and the opportunity to leverage a range of lowcost developments via workovers, reactivations and new wells, targeting shallow reservoirs, along with a range of further options for organic growth and exploration prospects. We also have low-cost appraisal of existing discoveries in the south-west peninsula of Trinidad to look forward to, and further infrastructure-led exploration at Weg Naar Zee in Suriname,’ he added.
Potter said, ‘It is important to note that the forward work programme is largely discretionary, and therefore operational sequencing can be varied to optimise the use of available resources’. In addition, ‘This enhanced asset base in Trinidad, Suriname and Uruguay is entirely complementary to, and in no way detracts from, our determined focus on our existing exploration base asset in The Bahamas, where we will see the build-up to drilling of the Perseverance #1 well in late 2020/early 2021, targeting P50 prospective oil resources of 0.77 billion barrels (with an upside of 1.44 billion barrels). A rig contract has already been signed for the drilling of this well, long-lead and critical path items have already been purchased, and globally renowned service companies are ready to work with us to ensure the safe and responsible completion of the well’.