So here it is then the first news from down south. The fact that traces of hydrocarbons were found is in most respect's far better than initially hoped. One has to remember that it took 36+ drills to find even a trace of commercial oil in the North Sea, an environment rather similar to this one.
OK so a free flowing well would have been great but you can't always get what you want. One has to remember also that Amerada Hess was drilling at the far north of the group of block's.
Sodra is right in the middle of the whole region..
LONDON, May 27 (Reuters) - Amerada Hess (AHC - news) said on Wednesday it would plug and abandon drilling of an oil well off the Falkland Islands.
''The well, which was spudded on Monday 27 April 1998, encountered traces of hydrocarbons; appraisal showed that these were not present in commercial quantities,'' the U.S. energy
company said in a statement.
Hess said well 14/09-1 in tranche A of the North Falklands Basin ''will be plugged and abandoned.''
The drilling rig Borgny Dolphin will move from Amerada Hess-operated acreage on June 1 and pass to other members of the Falklands Offshore Sharing Agreement. It reverts to Hess in
the fourth quarter of this year.
Under the agreement, Lasmo plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: LSMR.L) was scheduled to be the next company to drill starting in early July, followed by Royal
Dutch/Shell(RD.AS)(quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) and Sweden's Lundin Oil AB (LOILb.ST) and then to Hess for its second well.
Drilling began in April off the disputed Falkland Islands, one of the world's last unexplored sedimentary basins.
The five tranches to be drilled by the FOSA companies cover an area equivalent to about 30 North Sea blocks. Seven tranches have been licensed in total, covering 12,800 square km
north of the Falklands.
The blocks are 100 to 250 km offshore. Amerada Hess began drilling in one of the northernmost tranches.
British company Desire Petroleum Plc, set up especially to drill off the Falklands, is a partner with Lasmo in two tranches and is also operator with a 100 percent stake in two further
blocks. It may join FOSA if it decides to develop these tranches, one of which is twice the size of the other areas.
Oil industry officials recently said there was a 10 to 15 percent chance of finding commercial quantities of oil in the remote region in the south Atlantic.
Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falklands in 1982.
The two countries restored diplomatic relations in 1989 and signed an agreement on a framework for oil and gas exploration in Falklands waters in 1995.
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