Rockhopper upgrades its Falkland Islands oil find
SHARES in Rockhopper Exploration jumped yesterday after the energy explorer upgraded its estimates for how much oil it could produce off the coast of the Falkland Islands.
Rockhopper said that new seismic data suggested that its Sea Lion prospect in the North Falkland basin may be bigger than it thought and raised its low case estimate of oil in place to 608m barrels from 516m.
Based on the mid-case estimate of 1.1bn barrels, the company believes that it could recover around 30 per cent – or 325m – of the crude oil.
“We are highly encouraged by the interpretation of new seismic data which identifies both significant reservoir extension and the existence of two additional fan prospects above and beneath the Sea Lion Main Complex,” said Sam Moody, chief executive of Rockhopper.
It is one of a number of explorers including Desire Petroleum and Falklands Oil & Gas racing to find commercially viable amounts of oil off the shores of the Falklands.
Shares in Rockhopper closed up 8.84 per cent to 237 while Desire also bounced 13 per cent to 19.25p.