Rockhopper confirms major new oil find off the Falkland Islands

Rockhopper’s Isobel Deep reservoir off the Falkland Islands has been successfully re-drilled at a total depth of 3014m below sea level, in a location some 4km from the Isobel Deep discovery well.  

The well is located on licence PL004a in which Rockhopper has a 24% working interest – which will increase to 64% following completion of the proposed merger with Falkland Oil & Gas (anticipated to occur on 18 January 2016). 

The location of the well was also in a position that intercepted the edges of a number of additional fans within the Isobel / Elaine complex. The well encountered a total of five oil bearing fan packages of the F3 system, with net pay of 27m recorded within the Isobel Deep, Isobel and Emily reservoirs.

Whilst the data acquired is still to be fully evaluated and integrated, Rockhopper reported that the results of this Well indicate that the Isobel / Elaine complex is highly likely to contain ‘a commercially viable’ quantity of recoverable oil.

 The well will now be plugged and abandoned as planned before moving to the final drill of the programme.

Samuel Moody, Chief Executive, Rockhopper Exploration, commented: “Proving oil this far down dip in the Isobel Deep reservoir, in addition to confirming oil bearing sands at a location so close to the edge of the various other fan bodies, is an outstanding result and hugely increases the likelihood that the Isobel / Elaine complex can become a third phase of development in the North Falkland Basin.

 “Having retained the sub-surface lead for exploration once again I would like to congratulate our team on their unparalleled success rate of 10 out of 12 wells in licences PL004 and PL032 which brings us closer to proving this to be the billion barrel basin that we believe it could be.

“The success is of course even more pleasing following the announced merger with Falkland Oil & Gas which will shortly complete seeing our interest in the licence significantly increase to 64%.”