Exploration and development work is stirring in several areas of the eastern Caribbean.
RSM Production Corp. of Texas has requested access to acreage of unspecified dimension around the eastern Caribbean island of Martinique, one of France's overseas possessions.
The company sought access to the acreage for 5 years in order to carry out seismic surveys of what is, so far, an unexplored area. RSM is a member of the Grynberg Production Corp. group of companies based in Denver.
It is postulated that the acreage might cover a northward extension of prospective gas areas off Trinidad and Tobago. The area is a similar distance northwest of Barbados, which has modest oil production. RSM's request, prompted by a regional study carried out some time ago by Institut Fran
RSM in 1996 applied to explore for oil and gas on 4.75 million acres of Grenada territorial waters off Grenada, Carriacou, and Petit Martinique.
Meanwhile, Barbados National Oil Co. Ltd., which suspended drilling in February 1999 due to low oil prices, has resumed its program with a horizontal well in Woodbourne field, said press reports from Bridgetown.
Production totaled 350,321 bbl in the year ended Mar. 31, 1998 and 694,595 bbl in the year ended Mar. 31, 1999. It then fell to 656,624 bbl in the year ended March 2000, BNOC said.
The shift to horizontal drilling, given the area's geologic complexity, was predicated on greater well productivity more than offsetting higher drilling costs. The new well was to be drilled vertically to 5,600 ft, then turned horizontally to penetrate the reservoir.
Trinidad and Tobago's Petrotrin refines Barbados crude and returns the products.
And farther north in the Netherlands Antilles, Pangaea Energy LLC, Highlands Ranch, Colo., hopes to drill in the Saba Bank area off Saba Island (OGJ, Oct. 2, 2000, p. 46).
