Statoil ended a joint license agreement with Bahamas Petroleum.
Bahamas Petroleum says Statoil is dropping its involvement in the agreement following its exploration successes elsewhere and a subsequent review of its global portfolio.
The Bahamas joint license development agreement had been in place since May 2009. It covers three license applications − Zapata, Falcones and Islamorada − which will now revert to Bahamas Petroleum.
Bahamas Petroleum said the move gave it an opportunity to offer options to new prospective partners, and follows a recent mandate from the Government of The Bahamas to proceed with exploration drilling within existing licenses.
Within its existing five licenses, Bahamas Petroleum has an obligation to start an exploration well by April 2015, which the company says it expects to meet, subject to financing, via a farm-out agreement, with an exploration well in the southern licenses.
The term on Bahamas Petroleum's five licenses was recently extended by three years to 2016.
