MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands fourth Oil Company announces plans to drill south of the Islands

CEO Howard Kevin Obee made an enthusiastic presentation

The fourth British company licensed to explore in Falkland Islands waters, Borders and Southern Ltd announced preparations were “well underway” for a drilling campaign to the south of the Islands.

Representatives of the Falklands business community and others who attended a public meeting at the Chamber of Commerce last week were assured by Borders and Southern Ltd, that while recent media and political attention has been focused on the drilling for oil currently under way to the north of the Falklands, preparations were well underway for a further campaign in licence areas to the south.

Roger Charles of environmental consultants RPS began the evening with a presentation giving an overview of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that his company prepared for Borders and Southern in respect of two drilling targets: Darwin East and Stepping.

Darwin East is situated some 140km south of the Falklands and Stepping a further 30kms away, at depths of 2,010 and 1,400 metres below sea-level respectively. Reviewing the data gathered by Borders and Southern in a survey done in 2008 and other available information, the conclusion of the RPS assessment was that neither drill site was in a particularly environmentally sensitive area and that there was unlikely to be any conflict with commercial fishing interests.

It was estimated, said Mr Charles that the drilling campaign would last for around 70 days, but its start date was dependent on the availability of an appropriate drill ship or a 5th or 6th generation submersible platform.

The Environmental Impact Assessment would be refined and redrafted to take into account any significant seasonal factors, once the start date could be determined.

With regard to accidental discharges from a well, in the event of oil being discovered, Mr Charles quoted the example of the North Sea where over 3,500 wells had been drilled without such an accident occurring. However, Borders and Southern would be taking measures to deal with any “worst case” emergency should it arise.

Computer models also indicated that even with wind and tide combining to exacerbate a spill, there was no chance of oil beaching on the nearest land mass, Beauchene Island.

Following on from the EIA presentation, Borders and Southern’s Chief Executive, Howard Obee, gave an enthusiastic and upbeat account of the reasons for his company having chosen the Darwin East and Stepping targets.

Geologically, the Darwin East and Stepping targets are located in what is essentially an underwater continuation of the Andes mountains stretching from the tip of South America and curling westward to surface again in South Georgia.

Seismic three-dimensional work had identified similar structures to those found in other oil producing regions extending as far north as Venezuela, and wells drilled for scientific purposes in the seventies indicated the presence of similar source rock to that found in Argentina.

The Falklands second phase of exploratory drilling offshore the Islands commenced in February 2010 with the arrival of the semi-submersible rig, Ocean Guardian, contracted to drill wells in the North Falkland Basin for Desire Petroleum plc and Rockhopper Exploration plc.

Additionally, the rig will drill the first exploratory well to the south of the Islands for BHP Billiton Petroleum, associate of Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd.

No commercial discoveries of oil or gas have been made yet, but the first wells, drilled in 1998, proved the presence of hydrocarbons in the rich source rock of the North Falkland Basin.