North Falkland Basin explorer Desire Petroleum, said yesterday it planned to drill a deeper target on its Liz exploration well, where it emerged earlier this week that the initial hole had been disappointing.
The company said wireline operations were continuing, and from interpretation of the logs received to date it appeared that the deepest target was still undrilled.
It added that it intended to drill around a further 650 feet to test this target subject to operational constraints, and final completion of the well was expected late next week.
Aberdeen-based Diamond Drilling Offshore UK’s Ocean Guardian rig, which is drilling the well, will then be released to drill the Rockhopper Exploration prospect Sea Lion on the western margin of the basin.
Liz is the first well in an exploration campaign of at least four wells for Desire and two for Rockhopper.
Desire’s and partner Rockhopper Exploration’s shares plunged this week following Desire’s announcement that oil might be present in the Liz prospect in thin intervals, but that the reservoir quality was poor. Gas was also encountered in deeper drilling.
The British Geological Survey has estimated that the waters around the Falklands could hold more than 60billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Shares in Desire were unchanged yesterday at 50.5p, while Rockhopper’s lifted more than 1% to 45.25p.
Royal Dutch Shell said its Perdido field in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico near the frontier with Mexico was the first in the area to start pumping oil and gas.
Shell, which is operator of the field with a 35% interest, said the Perdido platform could produce up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day and 20million cubic feet of gas and would have a life span of more than 20 years.
It is also designed to gather oil and gas from the nearby Great White, Tobago and Silvertip fields. Partners in the project are Chevron (37.5%) and BP (27.5%).