Rockhopper claims first discovery in the Falklands

This article is extracted from International Oil Letter, Vol 25 issue 22, published 1 June 2009.

Although there has been no drilling in the Falkland Islands in more than a decade, UK-based Rockhopper Exploration is laying claim to the country's first discovery since seismic acquired by the company in 2007 has determined a Shell well has an estimated 3.4 Tcf in reserves. The 3D shows a previously unmapped structural closure that was penetrated by Shell's 14/5-1A well in 1998. Plugged and abandoned with non-commercial oil and gas shows, that well now has been assigned the first Contingent Resources in the Falkland Islands area. Shell encountered 165m of net gas pay. The discovery structure, located in 500m of water in license PL032, has been named the Johnson structure.

In addition, Rockhopper has produced a new detailed report on eight of its prospects which hold a combined unrisked prospective resource of 998 MMbo (P50 recoverable estimate). In addition to those eight prospects, Rockhopper has mapped 15 additional prospects that are unlikely to be targeted in the first round of drilling. Rockhopper plans to drill its Ernest Prospect first, perhaps as early as next year.

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