MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands’ Rockhopper latest well strikes quality reservoir and samples of live oil

The company now plans an appraisal drill 2,3 km NW of the Sea Lion oil discovery well

A well drilled by Rockhopper Exploration off the Falkland Islands struck a good quality reservoir that bodes well for further development in the area announced the UK explorer in a release.

The 14/10-3 probe was drilled by the semi-submersible Ocean Guardian in licence PL032 to test the extent of Rockhopper’s earlier Sea Lion discovery. The well which reached a total depth of 2830 metres, is eight kilometres north-west of Sea Lion and is the first to be drilled in the area.

“The well encountered good quality reservoir from 2,425m to 2,535m in a sequence of 4 main sandstone intervals. Within these 4 main sand intervals 64m of gross reservoir sand was encountered with net sand of 54m (a net to gross ratio of 84%)”, points out the release.

Furthermore “logs indicate that three of the sands encountered (Sands 1, 2 and 4) have high water saturations with hydrocarbon shows during drilling and in cores” and Rockhopper believes that Sands 1, 2 and 3 are likely to be related to part of the main Sea Lion feature, while Sand 4 could be related to the S2 feature.

“Oil and gas shows were detected throughout the reservoir intervals. Four conventional cores were cut through the reservoir totalling 101 metres and both the bleeding of live oil and oil staining were observed throughout”.

While it was un-commercial on a standalone basis the latest is “technically encouraging for reservoir development within Sea Lion” in the North Falkland basin.

“The quality sands encountered confirm our understanding of the depositional system within the basin. We are particularly pleased to have encountered a thick sequence of reservoir as we prognosed and obtained a number of samples of live oil. The results are indicative of significant upside potential elsewhere across the Sea Lion and S2 features,” said Rockhopper chief executive Sam Moody.

“This well is the first of a number we plan to drill during 2011, focusing largely on delineating the extent and size of the Sea Lion discovery, as well as testing additional exploration upside,” he added.

Following completion of all logging operations Rockhopper intends to plug and abandon the well in line with the originally intended drilling program.

The “Ocean Guardian” drilling unit will then drill appraisal well 14/10-4, which is located 2.3 km north west of the 14-10-2 Sea Lion discovery well.

Rockhopper is one of several UK companies involved in a round of hydrocarbons exploratory drilling in Falklands’ waters begun a year ago.

During April/May 2010 Rockhopper drilled a well on its Sea Lion prospect the result of which was the first oil discovery and Contingent Oil Resource in the North Falkland Basin. The Sea Lion discovery was successfully tested during September 2010 and was the first oil to flow to surface in Falkland Islands waters.

Rockhopper has contracted seismic vessels MV Polarcus Asima and Nadia to carry out a 3D seismic survey, beginning December 2010, over areas of licences PL024, PL032 and PL033 which were not previously defined by 3D, as well as adjacent areas.