Petroleum Jamaica: New round to depend on promotion talks

State-run Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) will await the outcomes of acreage discussions with companies before considering another bid round, PCJ oil and gas manager Brian Richardson told BNamericas. The official confirmed that PCJ opted not to pursue any bids received in the second bid round which ended in September 2011.

“Subsequently, we carried out a comprehensive review of our processes and coming out of that we are targeting intermediates, majors and supermajors, and sensitizing them to the opportunities that exist in Jamaica’s onshore and offshore acreages,” he added. PCJ launched the last round for 19 offshore and four onshore areas covering a total of 66,762km2 and 10,991 square kilometres, respectively, in March 2010.

Contract terms included five-year exploration and 20-year production periods, the latter of which could be extended by ten years. Other terms were a 33.3 per cent maximum income tax rate and/or possible tax exemption for a number of years, and permission to sell, farm-out or joint venture opportunities to other companies.

bnamericas.com