Three make bid for Barbados offshore drilling

Of the companies that submitted pre-qualification documents, four passed the initial screening – BHP Billiton, Jupiter Petroleum Limited, Windward (Barbados) Exploration and Production Limited and Newfield. (Photo: finweek.info)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, October 9, 2008 – Three companies who want to drill for oil in Barbados’ waters submitted their bids as the Barbados Licensing Offshore Round came to a close at the end of September.

BHP Billiton, Windward (Barbados) Exploration and Production, and Jupiter Petroleum Limited have all put in their bids.

According to government officials, many international oil companies showed great interest in the frontier area and engaged the government by making presentations, purchasing seismic data and utilising the Energy Division's Data Room for closer evaluation of the island’s offshore seismic and prospectivity data. These included Borders and Southern, BHP Billiton, BP, Exxon-Mobil, Hess, Newfield, Petrobras, Shell and Statoil.

However, all of them did not take the process to the end of the licensing round. Companies that had previously shown interest indicated that their last minute non-submission was not due to the quality of the prospects but rather the recent economic upheaval in the United States and across the globe.

Of the companies that submitted pre-qualification documents, four passed the initial screening – BHP Billiton, Jupiter Petroleum Limited, Windward (Barbados) Exploration and Production Limited and Newfield.