MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Penguin News Update

Stand-off in East Stanley; Another early Falklands' baby; Last LegCo meeting; Telecoms on the agenda; Rig unavailability delays Desire's drilling.

Stand-off in East Stanley
A STAND-OFF that lasted just over two hours yesterday afternoon ended peacefully.
Police attended an address in East Stanley just before 1pm where they discovered a juvenile had barricaded himself in to a room and was reported to have "bladed articles" with him.
Back-up was called in and a wide area surrounding the house was cordoned off.
As a precaution, the fire brigade, an ambulance and medics attended the scene and a number of off-duty police officers were called in to man the cordons.
Shortly after 1.15pm, police were seen to don protective vests, and shields were taken into the house.
When Penguin News spoke to Inspector Len McGill at around 2pm, he confirmed one juvenile was involved and described the situation as, "...a waiting game."
At around 3pm, the wait ended when police and fire personnel were seen carrying a person from the house and into a waiting police vehicle.
Police negotiator, DS Jonathan Butler had been speaking to the young man, with the assistance, Inspector McGill said, "of various personnel, as the situation dictated." He said no one had been hurt in the incident.
Reflecting on the afternoon's events, Inspector McGill said the incident had unfolded well: "The response of the fire and other emergency services was excellent.
"It shows how well we can work together with the other services. Thankfully, in the end, no one else was needed." The juvenile was taken to hospital and the incident is now under investigation.
He added, "Our principal method is to contain and negotiate. This proved to be successful on this occasion."

Photos: Chief Fire Officer Fiddes with Inspector McGill and police negotiator DS Butler at the scene; Firefighters Paice, France and Henry wait outside the house.

Another early Falklands' baby
THE SECOND premature Falkland Islands baby to be born this month is resting in hospital in Santiago.
Tanya McCallum and Jimmy Curtis welcomed their son, Calvin Christopher, ten weeks early. He weighed 1.262kgs. Tanya went into early labour at the weekend and, on Sunday evening, was flown by helicopter to Mount Pleasant where she was moved to an air ambulance for the flight to Clinica Alemana hospital in Santiago.
Calvin was born on Monday evening. His grandmother, Elaine Jaffray, yesterday reported, "Tanya is doing very well and Calvin is doing as well as we can hope for at the moment". She said the baby is breathing for himself most of the time and is being fed through an intravenous drip. Elaine added, "I just want to say thanks to everyone who has helped us and wished us well, the support has been amazing."
Calvin was the second Falkland Islands baby born prematurely this month; Ty Wilkinson was born three months early on Tuesday last week. He remains in the British Hospital in Montevideo with his parents Johan and Alistair Wilkinson.
His aunt, Andrea Clausen, said yesterday Ty is now stable and breathing for himself. "His vital statistics are all normal and he is sleeping lots, trying to catch up after a first, rather trying week."
Andrea said Jo and Ali, along with all the family, would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and words: "They are very much appreciated by us all." She added, "It has been very much a roller-coaster this week - but hopefully things will remain stable from here on in - we just don't know what to expect."

Last LegCo meeting
THE last meeting of the current Legislative Council takes place this morning. The council is expected to be dissolved some time in October, in anticipation of an election in November.
The meeting will begin at 10.30am in the Court and Council Chamber and any member of the public wishing to attend should be seated by 10.20am.

Telecoms on the agenda
TELECOMMUNICATIONS consultant, Dr Chris Doyle arrives in the Falklands tomorrow to hold a week of meetings with the government and Cable and Wireless on various issues, including tariffs and regulatory matters.

Rig unavailability delays Desire's drilling
DESIRE Petroleum, the company that had hopes of commencing exploratory drilling in Falklands' waters within the next six months, has been unable to secure a rig.
In a letter to Desire shareholders, Chairman Dr Colin Phipps yesterday said increased oil prices have pushed up the price of rig rentals and current suitable rig availability has reduced to "almost zero" and is likely to have worsened further as a result of Hurricane Katrina. When Desire conducted a survey of rig availability at the end of 2004, of the ten companies contacted, seven expected to have a suitable drilling unit available.
However, Dr Phipps reported, following discussions with the rig contractors who replied to the tender in March, it emerged that only one suitable rig was available.
"Despite lengthy negotiations with the owners of this rig, the Group was unable to agree an acceptable contract for drilling in the Falklands." Therefore, he said, the current situation as regards drilling in 2005 or 2006 is unclear but Peak Well Management the Group's drilling consultants, "continuously monitor world-wide rig availability on the Group's behalf."
Dr Phipps told shareholders the world-wide shortage in rigs has arisen because of the lack of new rig builds in recent years, coupled with the sharp increase in oil prices.
"In particular, many rigs are being used to appraise and develop fields previously considered un-commercial, in addition to the world-wide increase in exploration drilling.
"This has led many companies to enter into long-term rig contracts which tie up rigs for up to three years. However, this situation has occurred before and, in the past, has led to the building of new rigs, a process already underway now."
In addition, he said, many companies that have entered into long-term contracts, as in the past, may not be successful in their drilling campaigns and will have to seek other companies to fulfil their contract obligations. "It is not surprising that drilling companies are reluctant to undertake a three-well drilling programme in a remote location, such as the North Falkland Basin, when there is such high demand in their core drilling areas and Desire does not have the resources or programme to take a long-term contract; however the rig market is often subject to quite rapid changes.
"Accordingly, as the market stabilizes, rig availability may well improve in 2006".
In the meantime, he said, Desire has pressed ahead with its drilling preparations "in order to be ready to drill as soon as a rig becomes available" and is also considering other ways of securing a rig.