In late October 2017 Grenada’s Prime Minister, Keith Mitchell, cautiously confirmed the country’s first discovery, saying that Global Petroleum Group (GPG) found indications of natural gas while drilling the Nutmeg 2 new field wildcat in offshore Block 8 in the Tobago Trough, about 100 km south-west of the island in 180 m of water. However, Mitchell, who is also Energy Minister, added that further evaluation is needed before the Caribbean nation could claim its first commercial natural gas discovery.
Sources said the well was plugged and abandoned without testing, though GPG did run logs, reportedly in Miocene objectives at a depth of around
2,743 m. The well also investigated a secondary Eocene objective below 3,000 m. Sources said GPG found indications of gas whilst drilling, after the well was sidetracked because of technical problems. No other details were available on the sidetrack, and Nutmeg 2 reached TD at about 3,352 m in late September 2017. GPG now plans to farm-out part of its 100 % working interest in the block before it begins drilling a follow-up well. In all, GPG has 11 licences extending across 7,450 km2.
If commercial, the discovery would bode well for the country. The underexplored Grenada Tobago Basin acreage is adjacent to the Venezuelan/Trinidadian Patao-Poinsettia gas trend, and Nutmeg was drilled close to Grenada’s maritime border with Venezuela. Grenada recently passed a Hydrocarbon Exploration Incentive Bill 2017 to spur further exploration for oil and gas, successfully gaining more companies interested in the island.
