UK independent Rockhopper says it has identified five oil and gas plays with a recoverable reserves potential of billions of barrels offshore the Falkland Islands and that there is a “substantial increase” in drillable targets.
Moreover, drilling by Shell 10 years ago may have just have caught the edge of one of the targets as oil was encountered by two wells drilled in 1998, one of which resulted in oil being brought to the surface.
Rockhopper’s chairman, Dr Pierre Jungels, said: “We now have sufficient drilling targets to justify a drilling campaign, whether that means farming out or obtaining a rig as operator. Now that we have a larger number of potential drillable targets we can also begin to accelerate our search for a rig.
“The quality of the 3D seismic data, and the further insight into the basin it has allowed us, is extremely encouraging.
“In my experience, we now have a very high-quality prospect inventory from which to select a number of drilling locations. Work will now focus on refining the prospect inventory, including those previously identified in licences PL023 and PL024, in preparation for drilling or farming out.”
The initial phase of Rockhopper’s mapping covered North Falkland Basin licences PL032 and PL033, where 850sq km of 3D seismic data was shot in 2007.
The 1.9billion barrels figure is the “unrisked” estimate, compared with a “P50” calculation of circa 1.2billion barrels.
Rockhopper says its list of prospects does not include a number of additional leads which are still being investigated.
In addition, prospects have already been identified on licences PL023 and PL024 which the company reckons have P50 unrisked recoverable reserves of 2.5billion barrels.
Crucially, Rockhopper notes: “The 3D seismic has revealed that one of the exploration wells drilled by Shell in 1998, which (among other oil shows) encountered a thin sand with good hydrocarbon shows, is actually located at the very edge of a fan prospect which appears to thicken towards its centre.
“The directors (of the company) now believe that this thicker part of the fan prospect could therefore contain commercially viable accumulations of hydrocarbons.”
The acreage, now held 100% by Rockhopper, was previously held by Shell, and two wells were drilled in 1998. Well 14/5-1 encountered oil&gas shows; well 14/10-1 saw oil recovered live to the surface.
The Rockhopper 2007 3D seismic survey overshot the well locations and also the unexplored eastern basin margin, which is currently an untested oil play.
“The data confirm the prospectivity of the acreage and have further reduced the exploration risk as more play types have been identified,” said the company.
Rockhopper says it is to start advanced work on the data, which will include AVO (amplitude versus offset) analysis, imaging studies, geochemical modelling, further detailed log analysis, depth conversion and reservoir modelling. Among techniques already applied is CSEM. The company ran two controlled source electromagnetic surveys in the North Falkland Basin, both of which indicated the presence of discreet resistors in the area of the targets. It was in 2006 that Rockhopper contracted Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping (OHM) of Aberdeen to conduct the surveys early that year. They covered prospect J1 and lead K. Those areas were also the subject of a 2D seismic survey, also acquired during January and February, 2006.