Desire Petroleum, a UK company, has identified seven drilling locations on Tranches C and D in the North Falkland basin, offshore South America. At four of these locations, the company has identified dual targets resulting in 11 total prospects. Desire estimates that the prospects have a potential of over 2 Bbbl of recoverable oil.
Further recent interpretation of the 3D seismic data has yielded a further five prospects, Desire reports. Three of them the operator can test at the drilling locations already identified. In addition, it has identified numerous less-defined leads that will require further work before they can be moved to prospect status, the company says.
"The more we work on the 3D seismic data, the more prospectivity we see in this basin," says Ian Duncan, Desire CEO. "The identification of these five new prospects means that in the planned three-well drilling campaign, all of the wells will have dual objectives."
Desire was established in 1996 to participate in the first round of licensing offshore the Falkland Islands. The Falkland Islands lie 300 mi east of the South American mainland. Desire holds a 100% interest in 3,650 sq km (equivalent to 13.5 UK North Sea blocks) in the North Falkland basin. These interests are in Tranches C, D, I, and L. Desire also holds a 12.5% interest in Tranche F, operated by Talisman Energy. Six wells were drilled in this basin in 1998. Five wells recorded oil or oil and gas shows. According to Desire, these wells established the presence of one of the richest source rocks in the world. The British Geological Survey estimates that over 60 Bbbl of oil may have been generated and expelled from this source rock.
5/12/05
