Bissau Exploration Company Ltd (“BEC” or the “Company”) is a UK private limited company set up as a consultancy to support national oil companies and advise on oil and gas exploration opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Company was founded in 2015 by Elwyn Jones and Jim Gulland, both experienced oil and gas and geophysical services executives. BEC is a sister company of, and has common shareholders with GeoPartners Ltd, a highly experienced and successful international consultancy, specialising in providing geophysical and geological services to the international oil and gas industry.
The new partnership model, working alongside national oil companies, creates a collaborative and transparent setting for all current and future stakeholders to maximize the value created through successful exploration and the ultimate development of oil and gas.
BEC’s first asset was Block 4B in Guinea Bissau, where the Company has a 90% equity stake and Petroguin, has a 10% carried interest.
In 2017 BEC signed a joint venture agreement with Petroguin – Guinea Bissau’s ntional oil company – and in 2018 the “Bagre” License was officially awarded to the Company. Ther Bagre licence covers Block 4B of c. 3,000 sq km in the deep water of the MSGBC Basin, but importantly it is directly on trend to the Sangomar Field in Senegal. The carbonate shelf edge that defines the Sangomar structure can be mapped running due south through Block 4B and thereby offering prospective opportunities on the Shelf akin Sangomar and, in the basin, akin the Fan discoveries.
Regional and Detailed Work conducted by BEC
As part of the work that has been undertaken, BEC has prepared detailed presentations on the following topics, all relevant to block 4B but a lot of this work was undertaken to place the asset in a regional context.
- Well control ties and the issue of horizon identification
- The Lower Cretaceous source rocks in the southern MSGBC
- Maturity and 3D migration modelling of source rocks in block 4B
- Pre Cretaceous source rocks, including Paleozoic units, across west African margin
- Surface sampling including seeps onshore Conakry – work undertaken in conjunction with the NOC SONAP
- Reconstruction of the Central Atlantic and similarities between Guyana and MSGBC
- Regional structure in the southern MSGBC
- Play fairways and concepts in the southern MSGBC
- Mapping of the Barremian feeder canyons on the Platform and erosion on the Slope
- AVO studies covering the Albian to Barremian
- Blocking and de tuning of the individual Barremian fan lobes
- RMS studies in the Neocomian on the Shelf