By the end of this month, 40,000 barrels of Belizean crude oil will be loaded onto a barge enroute to the U.S. gulf coast for refining. And while a crush of tankers continue to truck oil from Spanish Lookout to the port in Big Creek, drilling has started on a third well. Prospects for the Mike Usher #3 are similar as to the previous two. But Belize's point man on oil, Geology Inspector Andre Cho, says it will be another 18 months before we know if there are commercial quantities in Belize. He says the oil we are selling now is mainly excess oil that the company doesn't really know what to do with. He discussed he prospect of the third oil well and how much we can expect to fetch today with 7NEWS.
Andre Cho, Geology Inspector
"We are just completing the third well, the Mike Usher #3. That has similar results as the first two so we're completing the well, cementing, casing, putting in equipment needed to test it, and begin flowing the well."
Keith Swift,
How many barrels a day is flowing out of Spanish Lookout?
Andre Cho,
"Each well is producing more or less a thousand per day son that's a total of 2,000 barrels a day for the first and the second."
Keith Swift,
But that's still not commercial quantity.
Andre Cho,
"No, no. Remember we haven't reached the point where we have declared it commercial."
Keith Swift,
So should be cautiously optimistic?
Andre Cho,
"Yes so far the discovery looks good, the wells are flowing good and as far as we can see now, it does look like it has commercial potential but we'll only know for sure after we've done commercial testing and appraisal. At the end of appraisal we'll be able to determine and say for sure if it is commercial or not."
Keith Swift,
How much will the company get for a barrel of oil?
Andre Cho,
"We haven't finalized a price per barrel with the companies up there yet. They need to make the first shipment and see how much it costs to transport it before they can decide on a price. So within the next couple weeks they should have finalized that and we will be able to report back to you."
Keith Swift,
Should we expect to get less than the average cost of a U.S. barrel?
Andre Cho,
"This oil is a very light oil, thirty eight degree oil, and in the States similar crude oil gets about US$63 er barrel so we'll be getting slightly less than that because of our location and the cost of transportation etc."
Cho says the preliminary results will be back in about a month.
