MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rockhopper/Navitas plans to develop Falklands' Sea Lion offshore project in late 2023 or 2024

This month Israel’s Navitas Petroleum completed an associated farm-in obtaining a 65% operating stake in five licenses in the North Falkland basin

Falklands upstream firm Rockhopper Exploration said a final investment decision (FID) on the Falkland Islands project Sea Lion should be taken by end-2024 the latest. Officials are working on a lower upfront cost project and seeking financing.

This month Israel’s Navitas Petroleum completed an associated farm-in obtaining a 65% operating stake in five licenses in the North Falkland basin, including Sea Lion, a project that holds 530Mb (million barrels) of 2C recoverable resources. Rockhopper retains a 35% interest in the licenses.

Rockhopper’s 1H22 report published this week said: “We look forward to working with Navitas, with whom we have already developed a strong relationship, as they build on all our existing work and knowledge to engineer an appropriate development concept and put together a financing package which could allow FID to be taken at Sea Lion during late 2023 or 2024.”

Rockhopper chairman Keith Lough referred to opportunities presented in today’s geopolitical context. “Amidst continued global uncertainty and material domestic pressures, we continue to believe a responsibly developed Sea Lion oilfield could provide both a meaningful source of financial benefit to the Falkland Islands, and a strategically and financially important resource to the United Kingdom.”

Last year Rockhopper said the Falklands' government had agreed to extend each of its North Falkland basin petroleum licenses, including the Sea Lion discovery area, until November 2024, with no additional license commitments.

Various exploration campaigns have been carried out around the Islands, but commercial production has not started.