Immediately following the aftermath of the worst series of earthquakes to strike and devastate the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico in nearly 100 years, social media speculation sprung around the possibility of oil and gas drilling. The question or concern is around whether these events are truly natural or provoked by human activity?
Since as early as July of 2016 there has been sightings of offshore oil drilling rig and exploration ships docked in the coast of the old US Naval Base located on Roosevelt Roads, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico.
According to SEC filings reviewed by VivoMix, these vessels may very well belong to Paragon Offshore PLC.
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“Both rigs are currently stacked in a shipyard in Puerto Rico.”, as stated in filing.
Oil and gas drillships and drilling rig docked in Roosevelt Roads, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico.
The filing is a disclosure for chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of Paragon Offshore PLC, and only mentions having two drilling ships in Puerto Rico. While actual sightings and other sources indicate that there are two drilling ships (DPDS2), plus a semi-submersible drilling rig (MSS2) in the island as of that time.
According to disclosed information, the vessels were parked in Puerto Rico as a result of the lack of contracts, while stranded in a legal dispute between Paragon and Petrobras which cancelled the rig’s contracts nearly 18 months ahead of its schedule back in September of 2015. Petrobras was also going through financial problems at the time.
Somewhat coinciding, the Trump administration through The Interior Department announced back in January 2018 a proposal to open nearly all U.S. offshore waters for drilling. While the American Petroleum Institute (API) launched campaigns targeting mostly black and Hispanic communities with the slogan “Explore Offshore”.
Particularly interesting, API’s Florida publicity included a former Puerto Rico state Senator, Miriam Ramirez, who co-chaired the campaign. According to a Reuters article, she believed that the higher paying jobs, especially for victims of the 2017 Hurricane Maria, would create economic opportunities that outweigh environmental concerns.
“We have an influx of thousands of Puerto Ricans in Florida, including doctors and engineers who plan to relocate permanently”, said Ramirez back in 2018.
According to the Reuters article, another advocate for API was Julio Fuentes, president of Florida’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who said he was reaching out to Puerto Rican evacuees and locals to talk about offshore drilling.
Less fortunate for the oil companies, public pressure forced The Interior Department to back track in its plans, indicating that they would scale back on their proposal as it relates to offshore drilling in the States.
But what about Puerto Rico? The island is said to have a large reserve of offshore oil and natural gas.
USGS oil and gas offshore reserves in the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico.
VivoMix wasn’t able to find a definitive indication that oil and gas exploration efforts are going on off the shores of Puerto Rico. However, we believe more in depth investigation is warranted given the heightened interest of oil companies coupled with both the support of the Trump administration and the economic need to employ oil rigs laying stagnant in the shores of Puerto Rico.
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