Updates yesterday from oil firms Cairn Energy and Desire Petroleum boosted Arctic exploration hopes but delivered a fresh blow to prospects for the North Falkland Basin.
Edinburgh-based exploration firm Cairn saw its shares rise by more than 2.7% to 431.6p after it said it had secured two rigs for its Greenland drilling campaign.
By contrast, shares in Alternative Investment Market-listed Desire Petroleum slumped more than 26% to 35.25p after another unsuccessful well drilling result.
Cairn is confident it will find substantial oil reserves in largely unexplored Greenland. Subject to local government approval, it aims to drill up to four wells in the area during 2011.
Semisubmersible rig the Leiv Eiriksson and the Ocean Rig Corcovado drillship are contracted to operate on Cairn’s offshore Greenland exploration programme.
The company also announced it had secured a £577million revolving debt facility from lenders in order to finance the rig contracts and provide funds for “general corporate purposes”.
Chief executive Sir Bill Gammell said: “By contracting two vessels for the Greenland exploration programme, Cairn has increased operational capacity and flexibility, and continues to demonstrate its focus on safety.
“We look forward to drilling up to four exploration wells offshore Greenland during 2011.”
There are hopes the waters around Greenland could hold billions of barrels of oil but environmental campaigners strongly oppose drilling in the area.
Greenpeace protesters obstructed Cairn’s operations near Greenland last year, claiming that the company’s plans threatened the fragile Arctic environment.
Desire’s announcement on its Dawn well was the latest in a string of disappointing results from exploration in the Falklands.
Last month, Desire said its Rachel North well in the same area was to be plugged and abandoned after it failed to find any oil.
The firm’s shares slumped nearly 30% on December 29 after it said the Dawn well had so far failed to find any hydrocarbons.
Desire said yesterday it would plug and abandon Dawn after deeper drilling was also unsuccessful, and that it was moving its drilling rig to acreage held by rival Falkland Islands explorer Rockhopper.