MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Desire's green impact plan slightly delayed

Oil and gas exploration company Desire Petroleum Plc with licences to operate in the Falkland Islands said that the environmental impact assessment on two tranches in its southern licences in the North Falkland Basin was slightly behind schedule due to a delay in a sampling analysis results.

The assessment is substantially complete and will be ready shortly for submission to the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) for approval, added Desire in a Tuesday release. "This is slightly behind schedule due to a delay in receiving the results of the analysis of the benthic samples acquired last year. Desire already has a FIG approved EIA covering its northern licences in Tranches C and D", said the release. Desire said the Falkland Islands government had already approved the EIA covering its northern licences in Tranches C and D. The company also revealed that several discussions are ongoing for the lease of an exploration rig to comply with the programmed drillings. And as the year advances "more opportunities will present themselves in the near future" as rates are reduced, (albeit slowly) and the willingness of contractors to enter into discussions that were not possible three months ago. Desire points out that "there are many factors to be taken into consideration before executing a rig contract many of these exacerbated further by the location of the Falkland Islands, however, the most important of these remains the commercial terms" The release further adds that "with 38 million US dollars in cash and a likely four well program, the Company is in a strong position to negotiate a very attractive contract". Desire underscores that despite the falling oil price the fundamentals of the projects remain unchanged with the Board enthusiastic about the company's opportunities "which remain firmly committed to the overriding strategy" even in the current economic climate to explore for oil and gas in the North Falkland Basin. Finally the release says that following a review during the year, "Desire has changed its functional and presentation currency to US dollars and the 2008 Annual Report will be presented in US dollars. This will better reflect the primary economic environment in which we operate".