Oil explorer fears its major $100m asset 'extinguished'

* Drilling halt would threaten licences renewal

* And cost potential $2.4bn jump in their value

* BPC chief warns of Bahamas reputation hit

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) has warned that its "major $100m asset will be extinguished", thereby threatening its survival, if the Supreme Court halts its oil drilling activities.

Simon Potter, its chief executive, revealed in a December 11, 2020, affidavit that it would be impossible for the company to apply for the renewal of its five southern Bahamian licences by the March 31, 2021, deadline unless it is able to complete its Perseverance Once exploratory well within the targeted 45-60 days.

Disclosing that the results will be critical to determining whether BPC seeks to renew these licences, Mr Potter argued that the oil exploration outfit faced potentially "extreme" economic losses if environmental activists successfully persuade a judge to "stay" Perseverance One's drilling as part of their Judicial Review challenge to the project's approvals and permits.

And, ominously, he warned that any Supreme Court-enforced drilling halt that deprived BPC of its ability to rely on the Environmental Authorisation (EA) approval granted by the Government on February 25, 2020, could "impair The Bahamas' reputation as a reliable and predictable investment destination". And, "at worst", Mr Potter said it could spark multiple legal claims in numerous countries.

Justice Petra Hanna-Weekes is due to rule tomorrow, on Christmas Eve, whether to grant permission for the action by Waterkeepers Bahamas and the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save the Bays) to proceed.

Despite not being named as a party to the case, BPC has decided to leave nothing to chance by filing a mountain of legal papers with the Supreme Court as it seeks to intervene and protect its rights as an interested party in the outcome.

Mr Potter's affidavit, filed as part of this effort, argued that any halt could cost BPC a $2.4bn increase in the value of its Bahamian licences - presently pegged at $100m - were it discover commercial quantities of oil in this nation's waters.

Many observers will likely regard this $2.5bn valuation, which Mr Potter said had been calculated by financial analysts and brokers, as speculative to say the least given that no oil has been discovered. Yet Mr Potter argued that, applying just a 20 percent success probability to BPC's chances, "the potential consequential economic loss would be in the order of $500m or more".

The BPC chief, though, was especially concerned about the impact any Perseverance One halt or delay would have on its licence renewals, as the results and findings from its first exploratory well are inextricably bound up with the decision to apply to the Government for an extension.

"Apart from the large direct financial losses, costs and penalties associated with suspending activities (and, thereafter, the costs associated with restarting activities, even if possible), any extended delay occasioned by the grant of a stay that ultimately operates to prevent completion of well activities by March 2021 will have the effect of preventing completion of the project all within the currency of the exploration period of the southern licences, which are set to expire on June 30, 2021," Mr Potter revealed. "This is for three reasons as follows."

With the Stena IceMAX drill ship and other contractors booked out on other commitments following Perseverance One's completion, Mr Potter said "I am not confident" they could be brought back to complete the job if the Supreme Court ordered a drilling halt.

"Secondly, any application to renew the licences must be made by March 31, 2020," he added. "There is no confirmation the Government would consider any application for renewal if the results of the exploratory drilling were not available.

"BPC would also not be in a position to make an informed decision as to whether to make a renewal application if the analysis of the drilling is not available. Thirdly, the drilling operation takes between 45-60 days to complete, and a period of time after completion of drilling is required for demobilisation and analysis of drilling.

"A stay of any significant duration would thereby frustrate BPC's ability to comply with its obligations under the southern licences. In those circumstances, the southern licences would expire and BPC's major asset would be extinguished," Mr Potter continued.

"The consequential economic loss to BPC occasioned by an extinguishment of [its subsidiary's] licences without having had the opportunity to drill the Perseverance One well would be extreme. Specifically, on a pre-drill basis, the southern licences are valued, as implicit in the valuation ascribed to BPC on the London Stock Exchange, at around $100m.

"If the Perseverance One well, once drilled, successfully identifies commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, that value, as independently assessed by numerous financial research analysts and broking firms in the UK could rise to as high as $2.5bn. This, therefore, represents the total financial loss to BPC that may result from a delay to the project."

Mr Potter said the publicity surrounding the Judicial Review challenge "saw an immediate eradication" that wiped more than $60m from BPC's market value on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) as investors sold down its shares upon the negative news. Besides the loss of investor and regulator confidence, he added that any delay would also hit BPC's ability to raise capital.

"In summary, therefore, I believe that any delay to the Perseverance One well programme from the current schedule would result in substantial direct economic losses to BPC of at least $25.1m, potentially as much as $29m, and even more substantial indirect economic loss of value and potential value of up to $500m," Mr Potter argued.

"It would lead to the expiry of the southern licences without the opportunity to drill the Perseverance One well and therefore would cause irreparable harm to BPC, its employees and shareholders, and possibly threaten the operational and financial viability of the company as a whole."

Comments

tribanon says...

SHUT THEM DOWN, PERIOD!!

The greedy foreign shysters behind the BPC Ponzi scheme are now threatening in an extortionist way to take legal action against our country (i.e. to sue the Bahamian people) in order to unjustly enrich themselves for their very own wrong doing. Simon Potter and his cohorts should never have secretly conspired with corrupt government officials in order to wrongfully obtain oil drilling rights that they knew full well would draw the ire of most right minded Bahamians if the sordid details ever saw the light of day.

BPC has all along been guilty of insisting the details of their dealings be kept secret notwithstanding their very public interest nature. Accordingly, Simon Potter and his fellow shysters fully deserve to bear whatever losses may be coming their way for thinking they could simply ignore the voices of the vast majority of Bahamians they knew would be strongly opposed to drilling for oil in what many around the world consider to be the most beautiful aquamarine seawaters on the planet.

Posted 23 December 2020, 9:56 a.m. Suggest removal

bogart says...

Mr. Potter apart from dealing with Bahamian officials also dealing with Cuban Communists of any Oil Spill would be heading south towards Communist Cuba. Seems Mr. Potter and the Communists in agreement with this seems to require more in depth analysis because the Communists failed to tell Potter that thousands of Cubans seeking to flee their Communist regime would take to fleeing by jumpimg into inflated inner rubber tire tubes lashed together and by using the currents and winds to drift towards the US. Mr. Potter seems unaware of Cubans making makeshift rafts to float north away from Cuba to the US. Bahamians know this Cubans using currents and wind to go north to had for decades had a US 'wet foot dry foot policy' to give sanctuary to Cubans floating the ocean and reach dry shores, usually tourists beaches of the US.

Posted 23 December 2020, 7:58 p.m. Suggest removal

4thebenefit says...

would you tell everyone the exact location where you found gold? no, theres why there is secrecy....

if bpc dont drill, exxon will renew those licences,...if not...total will,. and those massive international companies can really do what they like

the point is the oil is there, this is just an excersize to prove it...and if not bpc then it will be another foriegn company..
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also this has been 10 years in the making not 10 days....this could have been prevented years ago....

feed a man a fish and he eats today...
teach him to fish he eats everyday....

please set up an engineers college / petro chemist school from your new found wealth ministry of education.....so you can train bahamians in the oil insustry....take it into bahamian hands!.... demand this ..

no one wants to destroy your beautiful part of the world ...just to make money and benefit the locals...that is why there is royalties due to the b.g.

Posted 23 December 2020, 10:29 a.m. Suggest removal

tribanon says...

@4thebenefit; You're just a purveyor of misinformation and untruths. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental-Petroleum and a host of other oil exploration titans have already determined through non-intrusive state-of-the-art satellite imagery, seismic-surveys, etc. that the prospect of finding oil in our territorial waters is zilch.

Our government/courts really need to put an end to the fleecing of foreign investors by a small group of shysters using a rinky-dink company (that bears the name of our country) to run their Ponzi scheme.

Posted 23 December 2020, 11:12 a.m. Suggest removal

CuriousGeorge says...

If the state of play is as you claim: -
"the prospect of finding oil in our territorial waters is zilch."

Then what is all the fuss about?

If there is no oil there will be no oil spill and all the huffing and puffing will have been a waste of everyone's time. BPC will have wasted their $100,000,000 plus in the process.

Posted 10 January 2021, 4:47 a.m. Suggest removal

Bahama7 says...

The oil majors are circling... they know the carbonate reef systems in the Bahamas hold billions of barrels of oil. It’s deep - near Cuba.

Chevron failed and so did Getty.

Bpc have pinpointed it. Good luck to them.

Posted 23 December 2020, 12:58 p.m. Suggest removal

jus2cents says...

They don't have enough money to drill, then they don't have enough money to do a clean up.

The whole thing should be shut down!!

THEY DO NOT HAVE THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES OR A SAFETY NET OF ANY SORT!!!.

Posted 23 December 2020, 1:36 p.m. Suggest removal

Bahama7 says...

They are drilling now you plank!!

Wake up Boyce! What are you smoking?!

Jesus...

Posted 23 December 2020, 4:34 p.m. Suggest removal

Bahama7 says...

They have millions in the bank plus insurance, you are not making any sense old chap.

Posted 23 December 2020, 4:37 p.m. Suggest removal

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