Sagres Energy, the parent of Canadian firm Rainville Energy, which has the rights to explore three blocks offshore Jamaica for oil, says it has identified a "seismic bump" that could have three billion barrels of oil.

And now, the firm has until next March to drill and verify or give up the licence, but won't drill unless it finds a partner.

In a statement issued last Friday, Sagres announced that "results of an independent evaluation of the resource potential of certain prospectus identified in Sagres' blocks 9, 13 and 14 in the shallow-waters (20 metres) of the Pedro Bank 120 kms offshore Jamaica show(s) a gross mean prospective resource estimate (oil) of three billion barrels".

The company's chief financial officer (CFO) told the Business Observer that the term resource means that the readings "showed a seismic bump that should there be oil that is how much would be in it". He referred to Business Observer to the president and chief geologist, David Johnson, who was unavailable after several attempts to contact him via telephone.

In the statement, however, Johnson said "this evaluation provides a better understanding of the tremendous resource potential that lays in Jamaica".

"With the combination of nine of 11 historical Jamaican wells with oil shows, thre mature sources, two potential reservoirs, and large structures, we believe that it is only a matter of time before a large untapped commercial resource is discovered in Jamaica. Furthermore, Jamaica is ready to commercialise its resource potential with refining capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil per day, electricity generators that accept gas, oil, or biodiesel fuels, an established bauxite industry, and a geographic position central to the major global marine trade routes," he said.

Sagres says it will continue to pursue joint venture partners to further explore and develop its interests in the blocks and has already signed confidentiality agreements with several international energy companies to access the data for the blocks, and evaluate the potential for a joint venture. But the firm says it won't drill unless it finds a partner.