Desire strikes oil with latest well

MIDLANDS based oil and gas exploration company Desire Petroleum, which is wholly focused on the North Falkland Basin (NFB), said today its latest drilling operation in the region had discovered oil.

The Malvern registered company said its 14/15-2 Rachel North well had reached a total depth of 3052 metres and preliminary data indicated the well was an oil discovery.

Investors reacted positively to the announcement with shares soaring almost 30% in early trading.

Stephen Phipps, chairman of Desire, said: “It is highly encouraging that the initial results from the Rachel North well endorse both our findings and geological model from the previously drilled Rachel sidetrack well.

“This discovery combined with Rockhoppers’ Sea Lion discovery confirms our belief that the eastern flank play fairway in the North Falkland Basin is highly prospective and that further oil fields will be discovered in this area.”

Desire said it had now intended to use the drilling data and wireline sampling to obtain more information on the quality of the oil reservoir, the hydrocarbon saturations and the fluid type to assess the significance of this discovery. 

Subsurface support is provided to Desire by Senergy (GB) Ltd and the results announced today are based on the work of the Senergy operations team.

Rockhopper, which is working in conjunction with Desire, said it noted the announcement.

The completion of the drilling of the Rachel North 14/15-2 well completes Rockhopper’s earn-in on Desire’s licences PL03 and PL04, of which Rockhopper holds a 7.5% stake.

Sam Moody, chief executive of Rockhopper, said: “These preliminary results from Rachel North, when combined with Rockhopper’s Sea Lion oil discovery, are encouraging for the basin.”
 
Senergy has also supplied subsurface support to Rockhopper, the latter not having completed its own technical work.

Both drilling companies said further updates on the quality of the find would be announced once more information was known.