Falklands Mineral Resources Committee Director’s Report
By Stephen Luxton
A meeting of the Mineral Resources Committee took place at 0930hrs on Monday, 30 April 2012. At that meeting the Director of the Mineral Resources Department presented his report:
South Falkland Basin drilling campaign
Work continues in the South Falkland Basin with the Leiv Eiriksson rig working in Borders & Southern acreage. B&S announced a “significant gas condensate discovery” in the Darwin East-1 well on 23 April 2012. Further work will continue to assess the result including analysing fluids recovered from the reservoir section. This is an excellent result which proves a working petroleum system exists in the South Falkland Basin. A number of risks exist in a new unproven area and the Darwin well has demonstrated that there is a source rock, petroleum has been produced and expelled from it, a good quality reservoir section exists and is adequately sealed to contain hydrocarbons. The company advises that it has a number of other prospects which could benefit from this success.
Following completion of operations at Darwin East-1 the Leiv Eiriksson will relocate to the second B&S prospect, Stebbing, and commence drilling at that location and should complete this in June.
Regulatory approvals continue within FIG for the Falkland Oil & Gas wells that will follow and are all in hand with a further two papers to the current Committee meeting.
The cargo vessel HHL Amur recently returned to FIPASS with a further large consignment of cargo for the ongoing drilling operations and this has been unloaded and stored at the pipe yards.
Health & Safety Executive visit
HSE completed their routine inspection of the Leiv Eiriksson while it was drilling the Darwin East-1 well. The inspection team will close out any issues identified during their inspection with Ocean Rig, owners and duty holders of the rig, over the coming weeks, and FIG will progress these matters with Ocean Rig as appropriate.
Survey work
Rockhopper Exploration has made good progress on its geotechnical and environmental surveys and the vessel DP Reel has now completed its work. The BAS vessel RRS Ernest Shackleton has also completed its survey and is now working on BAS operations again. Information gained from these surveys will be used in the development planning for Rockhopper’s Sea Lion field in the North Falkland Basin.
Competent Persons Reports released
Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration released their Competent Persons Report (CPR) documents on 20 April, which are available from the company websites. Both give an updated view on the potential resources in each company’s license area following the completion of the North Falkland Basin drilling campaign in early 2012. Rockhopper Exploration commissioned Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA) to re-evaluate their assets in their North Falkland Basin license areas and the final report is a very comprehensive document.
Media interest in the Falklands
International media interest continues to be strong and Department staff have spent considerable time in the last couple of months meeting with visiting TV, radio and press media from numerous countries. It is perceived that the general coverage of offshore activities in the Falkland Islands has been extremely positive and it represents an ideal opportunity to correct many misconceptions that appear in overseas media about the Falklands. Speculation on the possible outcomes of the Darwin well has been high but the Department’s policy remains not to comment on any specific activities until results are announced by the companies. FSA regulations require information from AIM listed companies to be released to the Stock Exchange in a controlled manner via the London Stock Exchange’s Regulatory News Service (RNS).
