Oil fortunes ebbed and flowed this week as one exploration company abandoned its well, another looked forward to a second bumper find, and a new player joined the race for black gold in Falklands’ waters.
IN a freezing mountainside ceremony on East Falkland Islands today British Special Forces veterans and Falkland Islanders paid tribute to a Special Boat Service Sergeant killed on June 2, 1982.
Argos Resources the latest company to announce it will begin oil exploration operations offshore the Falkland Islands was sent a letter by the Argentine embassy in London warning it “to abstain” from such activities otherwise “it will face legal actions”, according to reports in the Buenos Aires press.
Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) will press ahead with its drilling program offshore the Falkland Islands despite reporting that its Toroa F61/5-1 exploration well was dry. However FOGL, which is associated with Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, said it will work first towards contracting a deepwater rig.
The first well to be drilled at the south of the Falkland Islands proved to be a disappointment, Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd, FOGL, officially announced to the London Stock Exchange.
A fifth UK company plans to drill for oil off the Falkland Islands after it raises £70m in a London stock market listing, reports the Financial Times. Argos Resources, which holds licences next to the landmark 250m-barrel Falklands’ oil discovery made by peer Rockhopper Exploration in May, hopes to achieve a £200m value on AIM.
The Falkland Islands requires an enhanced foreign investment climate, among many other economic ‘enablers’ in order to achieve a sustainable economic future, according to the newly released Falkland Islands Economic Development Strategy (EDS).
A cricketing first takes place this July when Falkland Cricket Club (FCC) Fife will play their namesakes from Newbury Berkshire, and the Falkland Islands Cricket Association (FICA) who are travelling 8,000 miles from the South Atlantic to take part in the Festival of the Three Falklands Cricket Week.
The Argentine consul in Punta Arenas downplayed the alleged repercussions of the recent trip of eight Chilean students to the Falkland Islands allegedly in the framework of a “written understanding” between the extreme south Chilean city council and Falklands authorities.
FOGL had been expecting to announce preliminary results of the well during this week; however, there have been some further delays due to some minor operational issues and weather related downtime.