MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands oil company purchases dock facility and readies for 2015 drilling

PGS Titan will take be involved in four months surveying in the northern Falkland basin

Noble Energy the US oil company involved in hydrocarbons exploration in the Falkland Islands has already purchased a temporary dock facility, is looking for a rig to start exploratory drilling in early 2015 and next month begins additional 3D seismic surveying.

Noble’s Business Unit Manager in the Falklands Mike Radabaugh made last week a presentation of the company’s plans to an audience of Islanders interested in the future activities of the local oil industry.

“Twice as fast as a typical gas company” was how Noble Energy was described by its representatives at a presentation given by the company to the public in Stanley.

The Houston based oil and gas company bought in to Falklands Oil and Gas Ltd’s northern and southern area licences in August last year.

Mike Radabaugh explained the company’s core operating areas around the world and told the audience that the company had been “looking for the next big project,” and believed that it could be the Falklands.

Next steps, he said, involved further 3D seismic, the erection of a temporary dock facility east of FIPASS (subject to planning permission) and additional exploratory drilling with a target of early 2015.

Further surveying of the northern licence will begin next month with the arrival of the massive vessel PGS Titan; this will take four months and will mean crews changing via Stanley and a reintroduced aircraft charter.

With regard to the temporary dock facility Mr Radabaugh said the area had been identified and was considered a reasonable place, “close to the existing shore base.”

Construction will likely begin in February 2014 with the materials arriving towards the end of this year. The dock, which is, “still in a conceptual phase,” will take around six months to erect, but could be taken away afterwards, “if that is what we are asked to do.”

The audience was assured that no dredging was required, and vessels working the dock would be chosen based on their suitability to the available depth. The barge itself has already been purchased and is docked in New Orleans and the dolphins (for berthing and mooring) “are being fabricated.”

Describing the structure Mr Radabaugh said it wasn’t anticipated the dock would be used for storage but would be a flat area for moving materials around.

They found the barge in Mexico in the Panama Canal he said and it had arrived in New Orleans last week.

Asked what would happen if they were not given planning permission for the temporary port, Noble representatives said they believed there was no reason not to be given permission if they were willing to do all that was asked in order to obtain it.

Speaking of drilling, the audience was told that further analysis was ongoing, after which the aim was to drill two wells. Currently work was being undertaken to identify a contract for a rig for the first quarter of 2015.

Asked when the company might require a permanent deep water port for their operations it was suggested that, “best case scenario,” one would be needed 2017/18. However they cautioned that if exploratory drilling showed no oil then in turn a deep water port would obviously not be needed.

Noble’s representatives also made it clear that where local contracts could be awarded this would be done because it was always cheaper to use local workers, however it could not be guaranteed that someone with a qualification would always be chosen for every job.

Other Noble representatives speaking at the presentation comprised their Falklands’ representative Richard Winkleman, who has been in the Islands for more than six months, Operations Manager Joel Landry and Drill Manager John Tregilgas.

Founded by Lloyd Noble in 1932, Noble Energy has 80 years experience in the energy industry and was one of the first independent producers to explore in the Gulf of Mexico. Today, Noble Energy is an S&P 500 company with reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent and assets totaling over 17 billion dollars at year-end 2012.

The company has core operations onshore in the US in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, offshore Eastern Mediterranean and offshore West Africa.

The company describes itself as having an outstanding record among US based energy independents: “Our broad asset base includes both development and exploratory resource opportunities, with an extensive number of crude oil and natural gas projects in the US and internationally. Our well-balanced portfolio and strong financial platform provide the flexibility to prosper across economic and commodity price cycles.”