Santo Domingo.- Energy and Mines minister, Antonio Isa Conde, on Thur. said there’s evidence of oil and natural gas deposits in the Dominican Republic, but doesn’t know if its exploitation is commercially or environmentally sustainable.

In the conference “Sustainability and the Extractive Industry” organized by the ruling party (PLD) at its headquarters, Isa listed the six areas with hydrocarbon potential , for which further research is needed to determine probable subsurface oil deposits .

“The areas of greatest potential are in the basins of Enriquillo, Azua, San Juan, San José de Ocoa, San Pedro de Macorís and Cibao Oriental, where there are faults and structures that could act as traps to retain oil,” the official said.

“The extractive activity is being transforming to harness the necessary technical information and studies that allow us to say that an oil system exists here,” he said. “What we need to know is whether it is environmentally and commercially exploitable.”

He said a all for tenders will begin in the first quarter of 2018 with international investors interested in exploring for oil wells, “but it will be necessary to determine the quality of the oil and the feasibility of the operation from the environmental standpoint.”

“In the first quarter it’s oil on land, the second quarter will be gas at sea. We’re enemies of creating false expectations but the scientific data that we have give us expectation and that hope is confirmed by the fact that there are companies that have already expressed interest in participating.”

Oil in the South

The presence of crude in the Dominican Republic has been known for decades, as evidence by the black gold that oozes out of a pit in Charco Largo, Azua (south).