Premier, Rockhopper Secure Falklands Rig

Premier Oil and Rockhopper Exploration announced Wednesday that a rig has been contract to drill a minimum of four wells in the North Falkland Basin, offshore the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

Rockhopper said that the rig was contract by Premier, as the operator of the license, but that it will also be used by Noble Energy under a rig-sharing agreement to drill a further two wells elsewhere in the Falklands.

Rockhooper anticipates using the first two firm drilling slots to drill the Zebedee and Isobel/Elaine prospects, with Noble taking the third and fourth, before the rig returns to the North Falkland Basin for the final two firm wells, which are likely to be at Jayne East and Chatham/Sea Lion West Flank.

Rockhopper said its sub-surface team has been continuing to fine tune the exploration locations to ensure that reservoirs are penetrated in the most optimal position. 

The four-well drilling campaign is targeting estimated total resources of 1.9 billion barrels of oil.

Rockhopper CEO Sam Moody commented in a company statement:

"We are very pleased that the contract for this rig has been signed and that we can now get planning in earnest for the next exploration drilling campaign. The four firm wells in the North Falklands Basin will target a total of over 520 million barrels of STOIIP [stock tank original oil in place] net to Rockhopper (management estimate) and will bring the total number of wells Rockhopper has drilled in the Falklands as both operator and non-operator to 19.

"Given our track record in the basin we are confident that the targets of our new drilling campaign are highly prospective. We continue to work closely with Premier as we jointly move the Sea Lion project towards final investment decision."

 



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