29th Oct 2015 08:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Falkland Oil and Gas PLC Thursday said it has failed to find a commercial amount of hydrocarbons at the Humpback exploration well offshore its namesake country, two weeks after the company said initial results suggested there was oil to be found.
Falkland shares were down 37% to 12.75 pence per share on Thursday morning.
Falkland's Humpback well, which has already faced delays, is a joint venture with the operator Noble Energy and Edison International. On October 16, Falkland Oil said it recorded oil and gas shows whilst drilling through the main target horizon, with the immediate wireline logging indicating the "possible presence" of hydrocarbon bearing sandstones.
However, hopes were dashed on Thursday after Falkland confirmed the well encountered "non-commercial quantities of oil and gas within a number of sandstone intervals."
It also said it could not obtain any fluid samples from any of the hydrocarbon bearing zones in the well because of "operational reasons".
"Falkland Oil and Gas will now evaluate these results in more detail and assess the impact on the prospectivity of the Diomedea fan complex and the rest of the southern licences. The results do however demonstrate a working hydrocarbon system and Humpback was only one of a number of geological plays within the Fitzroy sub-basin," said the company.
"Importantly the results will allow calibration of the 3D seismic data and this may facilitate the mapping of higher quality sands elsewhere within the large area covered by 3D seismic," it added.
Once it has finished at Humpback, it will move its rig back to the northern block to drill a second well on the Isobel/Elaine complex, part of its joint venture with fellow London-listed Rockhopper Exploration PLC and Premier Oil PLC. The companies originally planned on drilling the Jayne East well before changing their minds to drill a second well on the complex.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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