Treaty Energy Corporation, joint venture partner of Princess Petroleum, announced today that it struck oil at the San Juan #2 site near Independence, adjacent to the Port of Big Creek in the Stann Creek District, at around 4:30 p.m. on Friday, January 27.
The company also indicated the presence of light hydrocarbons (C1-C4), specifically methane, ethane, propane, and butane, in its find.
Treaty quotes its CEO Andrew Reid as saying, “Our internal analysis indicates that the Stann Creek field covers an area of around 350 acres, and with 4-acre spacing we would expect to drill up to 90 wells in this oil field. Based on our initial findings, we estimate there are about 5,000,000-6,000,000 barrels of recoverable oil in place in this first finding.”
Director of Geology and Petroleum in Belize, Andre Cho, indicated to Amandala this evening that he had visited the well site of Princess Petroleum near Independence, Stann Creek, where the company has announced an oil find, and they have taken samples of the rocks for analysis, “to see if they have oil in there.” He told us that he won’t have comments for us until tomorrow.
We asked Cho specifically to tell us if the find of oil in Stann Creek is commercial, and he said the Department has not yet confirmed a commercial find. (A commercial find would be large enough to justify production of crude and other related reserves found at the well site.)
Treaty said that it will drill the existing well to a depth of about 1,300 feet.
“At 1235 ft, hydrocarbons were detected in the form of a gas register,” the Treaty announcement also said. “This presence of C1-C4 gas readings indicated a geo-pressurized oil bearing zone/gas driven. As drilling continued, the indicator steadily increased from the depth of 1235 ft with readings being taken at 1 ft intervals.”
The company added that onsite analysis of the cuttings by Advanced Geological Services, Treaty’s “Mud Logging” equipment supplier and consultant, confirmed the presence of oil.
“Continued drilling showed a constant increase in hydrocarbon presence in the formation through 1290 ft, after which there was a steady decline. This defined the producing zone to be 1235 ft – 1290ft,” it added.
The company said that the Stann Creek oil field appears to have characteristics very similar to some of the great oil-producing zones in Texas, such as the Ellenburger Lime, Hope Lime, Caddo Lime, and Edwards Lime.
“The characteristics of these Lime plays are very well documented with initial production rates up to and sometimes exceeding 1,000 BPD [barrels per day],” said Treaty.
The concession area that Treaty has been contracted to work spans 200,000 acres onshore and 1,800,000 acres offshore for the Princess Petroleum Concession, plus 1,400,000 acres for Paradise Energy, which covers much of the Maya Mountains, but also includes areas adjacent to the current Princess Petroleum concession area.
“Through early analysis, we believe we have so far identified 3 possible oil bearing fields of various sizes,” said the company. “Treaty chose the current Stann Creek field for our initial exploration wells because of its easy access by our drilling team, proximity to nearby port facilities, and it being well outside of any protected areas.”
Activists in Belize have been vocal about petroleum exploration offshore Belize and inside protected areas, and a referendum to poll public sentiment on offshore drilling is pending.