6 days Ago By Chester Robards Senior Business Reporter [email protected]
Prime Minister Philip Davis said he is open to meeting with Challenger Energy Group (CEG), formerly Bahamas Petroleum Company, after receiving an inquiry from the oil company over the weekend. “They wish to come and meet with me. I’m open to meeting with them to discuss the way forward,” said Davis.
CEG told its shareholders earlier this year in an end-of-year letter that it would make a decision on the way forward for several of its business interests in this region within the first half of this year. That includes its business interests in The Bahamas. “We are currently reviewing our assets in Trinidad and The Bahamas, and anticipate making a decision on their future in the first half of 2025,” said CEG.
The company got the green light from shareholders to sell its Trinidad and Tobago business earlier this year, and entered into a transaction with Caribbean Rex Limited. “The transaction represents a complete exit of the company from its operations in Trinidad and Tobago, including from all liabilities and potential exposures associated with those operations,” the company said. Chief Executive Officer of Challenger Energy Eytan Uliel said in a statement in February, that divesting itself of the Trinidad and Tobago operations will allow for a better deployment of the company’s capital and efforts.
“Most importantly, exiting from Trinidad and Tobago allows full focus on our core assets in Uruguay, where we believe the opportunity to create near-term value for our shareholders is considerably greater, as we execute on our busy work program in both AREA OFF-1 and AREA OFF-3 in 2025,” said Uliel. CEG is now looking at how to move forward with the exploratory licenses it holds for The Bahamas. Up to last year, CEG continued to push for the renewal of its exploration licenses, while at the same time exploring the option of monetizing its assets in The Bahamas through carbon credits.
Guardian Business reported in 2023 that the company had approached the government about the possibility of earning carbon credits through its holdings of exploratory licenses. The company has already drilled one exploration well, that did not produce commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. Davis has said on several occasions that if oil is found in The Bahamas it will be left in the ground, as this country pushes forward towards a clean energy future.
Uliel told this paper in 2023 that his company had some preliminary discussions with the government about the possibility of a carbon credits deal, and that CEG made a formal proposal to the government about it. Uliel said his company has done a “considerable amount of work” so far to understand the carbon credits market, that has been touted frequently by Davis as the country’s answer to not drilling for oil. Having invested more than $150 million in The Bahamas to date, and having drilled one test well, Uliel insists that CEG wants to see some kind of return on its investment in The Bahamas.
.
