UNITED Oil and Gas (UOG) is intensifying efforts to attract partners for its Jamaican offshore exploration, positioning the Walton-Morant block off the island’s south coast as “a world-class frontier opportunity” that could mirror the transformational oil discoveries in Guyana and Namibia.

CEO Brian Larkin, speaking in an interview with Charles Archer’s That Stocks Guy platform, outlined the company’s strategy to unlock what he calls “one of the Caribbean’s last great untapped oil plays.”

“I think the string of pearls is there and…we’re showing prospective partners that, look, there is a serious, credible way forward here with this project. In a success case, we’ve got a line of multiple, multiple wells to go and drill. This could be another Guyana or Namibia. It’s all there to play for,” he said.

The comparison references recent oil discoveries that revolutionised those nations’ economies. Guyana’s Stabroek block, discovered in 2015, now produces approximately 600,000 barrels per day with potential reserves of 11 billion barrels.

The company estimates $50 million is needed for the first exploration well which United Oil and Gas is trying to woo partners to help finance. Data on prospective oilfields off Jamaica’s south coast are shared with these potential partners.

“We have some regional [players], some mid-caps, some majors — household names reviewing data,” Larkin said though he declined to identify specific companies.

“A $50-million well for the size of the prize here is a compelling investment case,” he added, noting the block’s certified mean 2.4 billion barrel potential by Gaffney Cline — a globally respected energy consultancy — and internal estimates that it could reach seven billion barrels with about 40 leads already identified.

Small independent exploration and production companies like United Oil and Gas often seek partnership with larger companies called ‘oil majors’ such as ExxonMobil and Shell to help them cover the costs since getting success often involves drilling multiple wells. But Larkin is adamant the risks are not as great as it was in exploring Guyana, especially given that Jamaican oil potential is in waters 50m to 2,000 metres deep compared to finds in Guyana in water at 1,990 metres to over 3,000 metres.

“The asset itself is conventional. It’s a shallow water play. It’s not deep water, so it’s not ultra-expensive drilling. It very much plays into a low-carbon development project as well, which ticks a lot of ESG (environmental, social and governance) boxes for the supermajors,” Larkin continued as he outlined that Jamaica presents “a world-class frontier opportunity” for prospective partners.

“So we’re sitting on a very unique asset for a company of our size. It’s large structural traps, proven source rock, a very strong, compelling technical case. Jamaica is clearly under-explored and that’s where the value lies as we’ve seen in regions that have been under-explored.”

Earlier this year, the company secured a two year extension on its license to drill, moving the timeline from January 2026 to January 2028. In May it submitted an application and is now awaiting permission from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to take samples of the seabed, in what is called piston core sampling, for further testing for the presence of oil and gas as the last stage ahead of drilling.

Historically, Jamaica drilled 11 oil wells between 1955 and 1982. While past wells showed hydrocarbons, none found commercial volumes — a risk United Oil and Gas aims to overcome with modern seismic data.

“So with the licence extended, you need to have a strong engagement. The window is now for Jamaica, certainly on the back of the sentiment that we’re seeing coming from Namibia and Guyana.”

He said the “low-hanging fruits” are in the Walton Basin, an area that is better explored and understood in which a single prospective oilfield called Colibri, is thought to hold as much as 400 million barrels of the hydrocarbons. Gaffney Cline assigned a 19 per cent geologic chance of success to Colibri prospect — potentially rising to 33 per cent with piston core results. The Morant Basin, though less explored has potentially larger scale oilfields, with most given James Bond themed names.

“You look in the Morant Basin where there’s more of the James Bond theme that we mentioned where we’ve got identified Thunderball, which has potentially over 600 million barrels of prospective resources. We’ve also got Moonraker, Blofeld and a number of other targets that we’ve identified, but that’s where you see the real frontier scale upside and that sits in the Morant Basin.”

Larkin pointed out that in the last 18 months, the company worked behind the scenes to streamline its operations to get it ready to go full steam ahead in exploring opportunities in Jamaica. The company is prepared to move quickly on farmout agreements.

“Well, so we have the licence currently, we’ve got 100 per cent. But in a farm-out situation, we would obviously be giving equity to the partner. I don’t know what that would look like yet. Obviously, there is potential that we would retain operatorship for the current phase of the work programme. There’s potential that an importer would want to take the operatorship. So that’s all still to play for and be discussed and negotiated. Next steps in terms of how fast can we move? We can move very quickly. We’re a small team, a small board. There isn’t an on-risk decision-making process.”

“We’re advanced on permitting. We’ve scoped out the technical partners to work with us on the permitting. So, look, we would be ready to move pretty quick. We have a partner in place and if somebody wants to come along to us and offer us a proposal that was acceptable, again, we could execute a farm-out agreement very quickly as well. These things are fairly boilerplate. So, things can happen in a really quick, short period of time, really quickly.”

With permitting advanced and technical partners lined up, Jamaica’s oil future may hinge on the coming two and a half years of exploration progress.

United Oil and Gas high-impact exploration asset with a drill-ready prospect. High-quality 3D seismic supports compelling evidence for a working petroleum system.