The recent discovery of two onshore oil seeps in Jamaica has raised hopes about future oil exploration:

Jamaica could be sitting on oil.

Two independent live oil seeps have been discovered in different parts of the island – the first documented occurrence of ‘live’, or flowing, oil from onshore Jamaica, CGG GeoConsulting and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) have disclosed.

They say the discovery was made during their fieldwork for a recently completed multi-client study of the petroleum potential on- and offshore Jamaica.

“The discovery of these seeps indicates the presence of working petroleum systems on the island that are generating and expelling liquid hydrocarbons to the surface,” CGG said in a statement announcing the discovery.

This exciting discovery of live oil onshore Jamaica, based on our joint study with PCJ, builds a strong case for the island as an attractive region for future oil exploration within the Caribbean,” said Sophie Zurquiyah, Senior Executive Vice President, Geology, Geophysics and Reservoir at CGG.

“The insights and promising outcome of the study demonstrate the value that CGG’s broad geoscience expertise combined with the integration of field geology, laboratory analyses and seismic interpretation can bring for high-grading frontier regions for future oil exploration.”

Manager of Oil and Gas at the PCJ, Brian Richardson, says the PCJ is now actively seeking overseas investors to tap into the potential oil find, as it was not viable for government to drill further.

Read more at Caribbean360.

Previously on Green Antilles: Oil, the environment and the Caribbean.

[Image credit: David Gold, via Caribbean360]