Desire to begin drilling Rachel North well

DESIRE Petroleum, the oil and gas company wholly focused on the North Falkland Basin, has agreed both regulatory and partner approvals to drill the 14/15-2 Rachel North well.

The 14/15-1 well has been plugged and abandoned and the rig is currently waiting on weather to move to the Rachel North location, the Malvern-based firm announced today.

The Rachel North well would be drilled vertically with an estimated total depth of 3,050 metres, it said.

The bottom hole location will be 1.7km from the Rachel sidetrack 14/15-1Z bottom hole location and drilling operations are expected to last around 35 days.

Desire says it is intended that the well will evaluate the sands with oil shows encountered in the Rachel sidetrack as well as a number of possible additional sands not seen in the sidetrack.

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The statement added: “Desire wishes to thank both the regulatory authorities and its partner Rockhopper Exploration for their speedy approvals to move to the new Rachel North location.

“A further announcement will be made once the well has been spudded.”
 
This latest development follows last week’s announcement that Desire had suffered mechanical problems in its drilling of the 14/15-1Z well in the Rachel prospect.

And last month the company signed a contract for marine seismic acquisition services with Polarcus at the same time as Rockhopper Exploration agreed a sharing deal with Polarcus and Desire.