We are drilling for oil again, and it looks very promising; We are selling the refinery to a very reliable,
and cash rich buyer; We are going to be the first 100% sustainable country in the world; This will cause no harm to our ecosystem, we will have no oil leaks, no spillage, no contamination, no pollution, zero environmental impact.
Aruba is a magical island and repeatedly when elections are on the horizon, we hear great news from our fearless leaders.
Yesterday at the AFBA Forum: Advancing Synergy with Governmental Labor Instances, a gathering at La Cabana Beach Resort & Casino, the Minister of Labor and Integration who happens to be the Minister of Energy peppered his narrative about the scarcity of Food & Beverage employees with the news that we will soon also have a demand for hands in his favorite, the energy sector.
He repeated that fantastic news at least twice.
We were told this week that Armstrong International identified three areas suitable for gas exploration in the island’s north-east. The company will drill in our territorial water, and according to their sources the prospects are good.
How they know without extensive geo-engineering studies, is a mystery.
Armstrong International is a subsidiary of Armstrong Oil and Gas Inc. with experience in both, in the USA, including Alaska. The independent privately held company explores and produces oil and natural gas. The company was incorporated in 1985 and is based in Denver. Their website only flaunts the logoed cover page, no other content. No LinkedIn presence.
In an article from 2019, in the Wall Street Journal, following a big discovery in Alaska, the company’s chief executive, geologist Bill Armstrong, was profiled as a wildcatter, the last of a dying breed — one of the “wildcatters” who search for new and undiscovered oil fields. This is what the article said: While wildcatters were the “longtime stars” of the industry, today’s oil companies spend less on exploration and discover fewer new deposits. Armstrong was labeled as “the last prospector” — a quirky Texan who wears jeans and Armani shirts and dribbles a basketball around an indoor court in his Denver office. The man eventually sold his stake in the field, in Alaska, for $850 million to a Papua New Guinea company.
We could now expect our own Minister of Energy to invest in jeans and Armani shirts and start dribbling a basketball around his office at the Cocolishi!
GOA & Armstrong O&G signed an MOU and will probably name the three exploratory fields in honor of our venerated leader: Betico I, Betico II and Betico III.
They will also have to collaborate with Curacao because the area east of Aruba touches the Western Curacao Basin, and collaboration would be beneficial to both islands.
My sources says: If they put those age-old inter-island jealousies and rivalries and even animosities aside hopefully Aruba will have success. My source continues with the following statement: Betico Croes of blessed memory is right in saying that while still there is a 1% chance of commercial success one should pursue that 1% – I personally think there is much more than a 1% chance of success if they continue their search at the right side of the Island.
This is not the first exploratory drill around Aruba.
Repsol a reputable Spanish company, signed a 2012 Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with the Aruban public oil company, Compania di Petroleo Arubano (CAP) with 100% interest and operatorship going to Repsol for an estimated total exploration cost of $150 million, if successful.
After the signing seismic surveys have been carried out offshore Aruba.
Repsol with French partner Total, contracted Seadrill’s West Capella drillship to carry out the drilling. This deepwater well was drilled in early July for a duration of 30 days.
Apparently, they drilled in the wrong place.
You must also remember the drillship, that same West Capella, parked on our horizon in 2018. That time, it was again Repsol, who signed a $6.4 million deal to bring the drillship for the Aruba well exploration. They targeted oil but came up dry.
Three previous wells have been drilled offshore Aruba in the 80’s and 90’s, all of which had gas shows. The proximity of Aruba to Venezuela’s gas field Perla, northwest of the peninsula, gives hope that an active system could source gas in an area call BonBini 1, to the northwest of the island.
But it did not happen.
Big question, are oil and tourism a match? Can they work together well?
