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Brief history of the country
The Dominican Republic lies on the east of the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago. The western part of Hispaniola is occupied by Haiti.
The Taíno Arawaks had inhabited Hispaniola since the 7th century when Columbus landed in 1492 and Santo Domingo, the country’s capital, became the first permanent European settlement in America.
After over 300 years of colonial rule, mostly by the Spanish but with short French and Haitian periods, it gained independence from Spain in 1821 as Spanish Haiti. The new country was absorbed into Haiti where slavery had been abolished. However, in 1844 dissidents in Santo Domingo wishing to retain slavery, declared unilateral independence.
Owing to repeated invasions by Haiti the country reverted to colonial status under Spain in 1861 but, under protest from Haiti and the USA, Spain left again in 1865. Independence was finally recognized by Haiti in 1874.
Subsequently the USA occupied it between 1916 and 1924. A civil war began in 1965 but this ended after another brief occupation by the USA, which had feared a Cuban-style revolution.
The Republic has the second largest economy in Central America. Though associated with agriculture and mining it is now dominated by services. Mass illegal Haitian immigration is a major issue.
Oil and gas summary
Hispaniola is part of the Caribbean island arc. It is volcanically inactive but subject to continued faulting. There are 4 mountain ranges running through the island divided by fertile valleys containing Tertiary sediments. The Caribbean Coastal Plain stretches north and east of Santo Domingo whilst the Azua Coastal Plain is an arid region in Azua Province west of Santo Domingo.
The country produced very small amounts of oil from the Azua Tertiary Basin in 1904, for two years from 1920, and then again in 1940 and 1941.
The Enriquillo basin in the southwest of the country, and the site of gas seeps, has also been explored but without success. Other areas have seen the occasional well and have also been reported as yielding oil and gas seeps.
Due to a shortage of seals to reservoirs in these basins, the country now has no identified indigenous oil or gas resources, either onshore or offshore.
Globalshift believes it is unlikely to achieve any significant new commercial production in the short and medium term.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Map and National Flag
CENTRAL AMERICA
Ranching
Central America
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Santo Domingo
10 mm
48,671
None
None
130
None
Government
The Dominican Republic is a representative democracy.
The President heads the executive branch and executes laws passed by the Congress, appoints the Cabinet, and is commander in chief of the armed forces.
The national legislature is bicameral, composed of a 32-member Senate and 178-member Chamber of Deputies.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines is responsible for licensing exploration blocks.
Geology and History of Exploration
Geology - Being a part of the Caribbean island arc, the country is subject to earthquakes although its volcanoes are all currently inactive. A number of Tertiary basins lie between a series of mountain ranges north of the southern coastal plain. The Azua Basin on this coastal plain, an arid region in Azua Province west of Santo Domingo, was the site of the Republic’s only oil production.
The country has produced about 30,000 bbls of oil from shallow depth sands in the Maleno and Higuerito oil fields located along the thrust front in the Azua Tertiary Basin. However, the basin is generally not deep enough to generate significant volumes of oil or gas. The oils produced were probably generated under the east-dipping subduction zone that runs north-south across the basin's eastern side. Within this downthrown plate, source rocks generated oil that migrated to the surface along the thrust front.
The Enriquillo basin in the southwest of the country west of Azua, the site of gas seeps, has also been explored. Gas seeps were identified in the basin in 1942 but no commercial accumulations have been drilled. This basin (known as the Cul de Sac basin where it extends into Haiti) is a ramp basin with its northern and southern flanks defined by reverse faults. Early Pliocene evaporites of the Angostura formation and clastics of the Late Pliocene Sal Salinas formation crop out on its southern flank. The oldest sediments are thought to be Paleocene to Eocene carbonates overlying Cretaceous oceanic basalts.
Oil and gas seeps have also been reported in the far eastern province of La Altagracia and in the Cibao basin of northern Hispaniola where a few dry holes have been drilled. Similar stratigraphies are likely here but the potential for commercial fields is limited by shallow burial depths and a lack of subsurface trapping mechanisms.
History - The Dominican Republic produced small amounts of oil from the Azua Tertiary Basin intermittently from 1904 but has produced no oil or gas since 1941.
The first oil discovery was the Higuerito field in 1904 which produced for less than 2 years in 1904 and 1905 and from 1920 to 1922. The Maleno field was discovered in 1939 and oil was produced in 1940 and 1941 before abandonment. A number of wells were drilled in this region at the time and also in the late 1950s and 1960s.
The first well in the neighbouring Enriquillo basin was drilled in 1946, followed by further wells in 1960 and 1961. In 1981 the deepest well on Hispaniola was drilled in this basin to 4,830 m. All were dry holes. The last well drilled in the country, in 2001, was the Boca Cachon–1 exploration well in the Enriquillo basin. It was drilled near a gas seep and discovered non-commercial gas deposits. There are regular reports of oil and gas seeps around the country but no drilling has been conducted since 2001.
No wells have ever been drilled offshore although the SP2 block was awarded to Apache offshore in the unexplored San Pedro de Macorís basin in 2019.