KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC—United Oil and Gas Plc (UOG) says no commercial oil or gas discovery has been made in Jamaica despite reports circulating on social media that the commodity had been discovered there.
In a statement on Tuesday, the British-based company, which has a 22,400km2 offshore exploration license located to the south of the island, said it has drilled no wells.
The company said that the Walton-Morant license it has acquired is for exploration off Jamaica’s south coast. It “holds a 100 percent working interest and is currently engaged in a farm-out process.
“The Walton-Morant Licence is a vast exploration area containing numerous promising prospects. We are committed to improving our understanding of the resource potential within the license area,” said Brian Larkin, United’s chief executive officer.
The oil and gas company said that its 2024 work program is focused on conducting piston core sampling, which aims to detect any oil residue before considering future exploration drilling targets.
“We continue working to secure a strategic partner to unlock the immense potential within the license, including recent positive interest that several parties have shown. Following securing an extension to the license, our 2024 work program is underway, and we will update the market at the next suitable opportunity,” Larkin added.
Earlier, Energy Minister Daryl Vaz also dismissed reports of the oil find as “fake news,” saying, “I have seen the many posts on social media and received WhatsApps and telephone calls about the fake news circulating on social media about the discovery of oil on our shores or off our shores.
“As a minister, I can categorically state that there is no such thing; it is absolutely fake news,” Vaz said.
According to the social media reports, the oil discovery is equivalent to seven billion barrels, with some people speculating that the release of popular entertainer Vybz Kartel, who had been convicted of murder, was done deliberately to distract the masses from the alleged find.
But in a video message, Vaz said the claims are “untrue” and urged Jamaicans to disregard the rumors.
“As a minister, I would be the first to be excited to share such good news if and when that happens. So until you hear from me while I am minister, disregard all information about Jamaica’s discovery of oil; it is simply untrue,” Vaz said.
United Oil Plc’s website states that its “frontier exploration license benefits from excellent data coverage, including 2,250km2 of 3D data, which has helped define multiple plays and prospects and material productivity within the acreage.”
It said over seven billion barrels of mean/mid-case recoverable unrisked prospective resources had been identified within the Walton Morant license area.
“This estimation is based on United’s arithmetic sum of the mean/mid-case prospective unrisked resources for each prospect and lead identified by United and previous operators.
“The license area includes 21 prospect leads, each containing more than 100 million barrels of oil potential. The largest of which potentially contains more than 1.1 billion barrels mid-case unrisked prospective recoverable resources,” the British-based company said.
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