Falkland Oil and Gas (FOG) said it was preparing to start drilling what it described as one of the highest-impact exploration wells to be drilled by an independent this year.
The Falklands-based explorer said the well would be the first of its 2012 exploration wells.
It added that the Loligo prospect was part of a larger complex thought to have recoverable resources of 4.7billion barrels of oil equivalent.
It will also be FOG’s first well in a two-well programme, in partnership with Edison International, to the south of the Falklands this year, using the Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible rig.
FOG said the second well would target either the Nimrod or Scotia prospects, any of which it said had a resource
potential of more than one billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Ocean Rig’s Leiv Eiriksson has just completed work on the Stebbing prospect for fellow explorer Borders and Southern.
Borders and Southern said yesterdayjuly 31 this well, also in the southern basin, had now been plugged and abandoned.