Falklands oil and gas explorer Rockhopper Petroleum said today it had spudded its latest well in the remote region.
Drilling the well, 14/15-4, is part of a farm-in agreement on the North Falkland basin Licence PL004b which will leave licence holder Desire Petroleum with a 40% interest.
The well is designed to investigate reservoir presence and hydrocarbon charge towards the southernmost mapped limit of Rockhopper’s Sea Lion field and is located approximately 12.1km to the south-west of the 14/10-2 discovery well and 6.3km to the south of well 14/10-9.
The well is also an exploration well on the Beverley prospect.
Rockhopper intends to drill to total depth and then sidetrack to core, should significant hydrocarbon charged reservoir be found in either the Sea Lion main complex or Beverley.
Initial drilling and logging operations are expected to take about 20 days.
On completion of the well, the Ocean Guardian rig will leave the North Falkland basin.