Friday - May 07, 2010

Black Gold, Falklands Tea

Rockhopper, the British oil and gas explorer, said it had discovered oil off the Falkland Islands.

Rockhopper Exploration, the North Falkland Basin oil and gas exploration company, is pleased to announce that well 14/10-2 on the Sea Lion prospect has reached a depth of 2,744 metres. Initial data collected indicate that this well is an oil discovery, which would be the first in the North Falkland Basin.

The Company has run a suite of wireline logs and logging data collected thus far indicate that the well has encountered a 150 metre gross interval of sand and shales.  The data show that the well has 53 metres of net pay distributed in multiple pay zones, the thickest of which has a net pay of 25 metres.  These pay zones have an average porosity of 19%.

Rockhopper Exploration shares jumped 120pc to 81p.  The company, which is working in the North Falkland Basin, made the find at a depth of 2,744m in its Sea Lion prospect. It is considering whether to drill an appraisal well.

Sea Lion is one of two blocs where Rockhopper has permission to explore and early reports estimate it contains 170m barrels of oil – with the maximum forecast more like 470m barrels. Later this year, the company will drill its Ernest prospect, which is about the same size.

“We are extremely excited by the results of this well,” said Samuel Moody, Rockhopper’s managing director. “While we are presently acquiring additional data, current indications are that we have made the first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin.”

Ok, so it isn’t a big find. The whole thing is only a 8 to 23 day supply for the US at most. But it’s only the first find in the area. But look at the bigger picture; Brazil made some large finds out in their ocean last year, and production off the coast of western Africa has been chugging right along. It may be that the South Atlantic continental shelf is the next bonanza.

Meanwhile, Argentina is behaving typically, crying to the UN to “make a decision” and slapping “permit” tariffs on ships going to and from the Falklands. Gordon Brown is having none of it, thank you very much.

HMS York, a type 42-destroyer, was on a “tight leash” patrolling the seas around the islands in response to rising tensions over British firms oil explorations activities near the Falklands. Argentina has demanded a halt to “illegal” oil drilling around the Falkands and on Wednesday imposed a permit system on ships passed from its ports to the island.

Gordon Brown, the prime minister, issued an explicit warning to the Argentinian government that the South Atlantic show of force – which also included a survey vessel backed up by a 1,000-strong military detachment on land – would respond to any disruption of the Falklands links to the outside world.

...

Argentinian officials have revived the country’s claims to sovereignty over Falklands as it contests British claims on the potentially lucrative deep sea oilfields within the islands 200-mile economic zone.

Jorge Taiana, Argentina’s foreign minister, scheduled a meeting with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, next week to discuss British failure to comply with resolutions calling for a “discussion” of sovereignty.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/07/2010 at 02:07 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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