Falklands : When Is The Right Time For Falklands Oil Prospecting?
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 20.09.2005 (Article Archived on 04.10.2005)
We've already done it, Chay!
WHEN IS THE TIME RIGHT FOR FALKLANDS OIL PROSPECTING?
By J. Brock (FINN)
Small hydrocarbons companies with people clocking up years of experience in the business have decided to put their money where their mouth is in high-risk oil exploration in the South Falklands Basin. Known as a frontier province, Falklands waters have been surveyed for hydrocarbons before with stunning success in that the North Falklands Basin contains the second best source rock in the world.
As for waters south of the Islands, they are still being surveyed. However, data thus far has been encouraging enough to commit the entities of Falklands Oil and Gas Limited (FOGL) to heavily invest their own money in order to see what riches data from the seabed around the Falklands holds – an indicator of good news to come.
The bootstraps movement in the South Falklands Basin seems to have paid off because the proper steps have been taken to identify significant areas of interest. 3D surveying those areas makes sense in that they can be eliminated if the geology isn’t right. Nowadays Companies drilling for hydrocarbons using results from 2D surveys only haven’t been in the business for long. FOGL have 3D surveys in mind before any exploratory drilling goes ahead. Seeing that wells are significantly expensive, it pays to know what’s on the seabed before any rig is brought down.
A rig from Brazil could be brought to the area at less expense than one from the North Sea but if the data is right, an appropriate rig would be found. Even if hydrocarbons in commercial quantities are found, it would be several years before those hydrocarbons are extracted. And, what’s more, the well where the first commercial quantities were discovered won’t be the one that is used to tap the resource commercially.
There is always the risk of failure in any oil province as hydrocarbons exploration and exploitation is a high-risk business. As stated before, don’t invest the rent money on it. Investors in the Falklands were told in 1997 that it takes years to explore for and then exploit commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. They know about the waiting game and have invested their money accordingly.
Initial exploration work in the licensed areas now being surveyed is almost complete, with the 3D surveys to come next. If anything, a lot of research and planning went into the Falklands Hydrocarbons industry. Cowboys didn’t willy-nilly make their way to the North and South Falklands Basins with rigs ready to pump out the black gold that would make them and a few Islanders rich.
As for politics - five minutes is a long time - getting to the black stuff couldtake years.
So when’s the right time for Falklands oil prospecting? It’s past, Chay! We started in the last century.
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