Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) , the oil and gas company operating in North Basin of the Falkland Islands, said this morning that its 14/15-2 Rachel North well had reached a total depth of 3052 metres and that preliminary data indicates that the well is an oil discovery.
The company has run an initial suite of wireline logs and this together with the drilling data indicates that the well encountered a 349 metres gross interval from 2621 metres to 2970 metres of sands and shales with hydrocarbons, of which 57 metres is net pay in multiple zones. The thickest zone is eight metres thick with an average porosity of 20% . Other zones are thinly bedded and lower porosity but require further analysis from additional wireline logs to establish reservoir potential.
Desire said it now intends to complete the wireline logging and wireline sampling programme to obtain more information on the reservoir quality, the hydrocarbon saturations and the fluid type to assess the significance of the discovery.
Stephen Phipps, the 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 Rockhopper’s 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 began drilling the Rachel North well early in November and just days after an initial well ended in mechanical failure. Despite the setback on the original Rachel well, the company said it was encouraged enough by what it saw to consider drilling another well in more or less the same place.
Desire is one of a handful of exploration companies currently looking for oil in the Falklands using the Ocean Guardian rig. In anticipation of the latest drilling, shares in the AIM listed company jumped from 95p at the start of September to a high of 168p in early October. They closed yesterday at 106p. The value of shares in its partner Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) , has soared since the end of May when it became the first of the group to strike…
No mention that the big oil companies gave up on these sites beforehand - this report is limited.
