MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands: Sea Lion Exploration Well - 14/10-2 Oil Dicovery

Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH), the North Falkland Islands Basin oil and gas exploration company, is pleased to announce that well 14/10-2 on the Sea Lion prospect has reached a depth of 2,744 metres. Initial data collected indicate that this well is an oil discovery, which would be the first in the North Falkland Basin.

Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) has run a suite of wireline logs and logging data collected thus far  indicate that the oil well has encountered a 150 metre gross interval of sand and shales. The data show that the well has 53 metres of net pay distributed in  multiple pay zones, the thickest of which has a net pay of 25 metres. These pay zones have an average porosity of 19%.

The company now intends to collect additional logging information prior to making  a decision whether to plug and abandon the well, or to suspend the well for  future testing. It is also considering whether to drill an appraisal well on Sea Lion later during the current drilling campaign. Further information will be distributed in due course.

It remains the intention of the company to drill the Ernest prospect in the fourth slot of the overall Falklands drilling programme.

Samuel Moody, Managing Director, commented: “We are extremely excited by the results of this well. While we are presently acquiring additional data, current indications are that we have made the first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin. We will now focus on analysing in  more detail the data gathered from the well, in addition to continuing  preparations for the drilling of our Ernest prospect later in the year.”