Canadian Firm Strikes Oil in Western Nicaragua

MANAGUA – A Canadian energy company expects to pump some 5,000 barrels of petroleum from a well in western Nicaragua in the next two months, Energy and Mines Minister Emilio Rappaccioli told state media.

Pumping the crude out of the well “is a good sign that probably the petroleum that is there can be exploited commercially,” the energy minister told Radio Nicaragua.

Rappaccioli said Canada’s Norwood Resources had a concession in the Pacific region to explore for oil and had drilled three wells in 19 months.

In May, Norwood said that in light of the initial exploration work conducted in the San Bartolo region, located 50 kilometers west of Managua, it was examining the possibility that a field with “significant hydrocarbons” existed in Nicaragua.

The energy minister said Norwood had drilled to a depth of nearly 3,000 meters “and they have found clear traces, specifically, of liquid petroleum and gas.”

These traces “substantially improved” in the third well and the company agreed to drill once again “with the goal of getting petroleum out and not to study or explore,” Rappaccioli said.

“It’s expected that 4,000 or 5,000 barrels of petroleum will be brought out in the next two months,” the energy minister said, adding that it would take six months to know whether the field was commercially viable.

The Nicaraguan government has also granted oil concessions in San Rafael del Sur, a city in the Pacific region, to Oklahoma-Nicaragua, S.A., known as Indoklanicsa, and concessions in the Caribbean region to U.S.-based MKJ Exploraciones Internacionales S.A.