MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands at Calgary oil conference

Interest in the Falkland Islands at the biggest worldwide oil exploration conference was down this year; however this has been attributed to increased use of the Mineral Resources Department's website.

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Conference is an annual event held in North America. This year's event took place in Calgary, Canada last month and the Falklands were represented by Councillor Stephen Luxton, Director of Minerals and Agriculture Phyl Rendell, Oil Statistics Manager Alex Blake and Phil Richards and Bob Gatliff from British Geological Survey.

Councillor Luxton said the event was well attended with over 7.000 delegates though there seemed to be less interest in the Falklands' stand than in some previous years.

"As always though, it was a handful of very good contacts that made the event worth attending, rather than the total numbers of people visiting the stand, as the majority of visitors only have a casual interest in the Falklands."

He said the emphasis on the Falkland Islands Government's activity at the conference has changed, "...from marketing to potential new license holders over the last few years, to now mainly providing information on the farm-in opportunities available with existing license-holders who are well advanced in their seismic exploration programmes."

He added that the "excellent and comprehensive" Mineral Resources website www.falklands-oil.com has also reduced the number of personal enquiries, "...as many interested companies can now access much of the information they require on-line."

The North American AAPG is believed to be the biggest worldwide oil exploration conference and attracts delegates from virtually every sector of onshore and offshore minerals worldwide.

Councillor Luxton said many companies have very large and elaborate stands there promoting their products, "but for us the main interest is in making contacts with ?new venture' exploration managers of oil and gas companies, and providing them with information which they may then pursue to either a license application or a farm-in with an existing license holder."

He said a number of "useful contacts" were made during the conference. (PN).-