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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (129051)	3/7/2010 11:35:14 AM
From: elmatador	1 Recommendation Respond to of 206089

Yes. Agreed. No further posting on the issue.

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (129051)	7/14/2010 7:58:00 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 206089

Shares of Oil Firm Tumble After Falklands Setback. plugged and abandoned the Toroa well, located some 120 kilometers due south of the islands' capital, Stanley, after failing to find any hydrocarbons during drilling to depths of almost 2,500 meters. Shares of Oil Firm Tumble After Falklands Setback. LONDON—Oil and gas explorer Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. said it didn't find oil at an exploration well off the coast of the Falkland Islands, sending its shares plunging by more than half. The announcement marked the second disappointment in a mixed campaign by a small group of U.K. companies looking for oil in the waters near the disputed south Atlantic territory. Falkland Oil & Gas said it plugged and abandoned the Toroa well, located some 120 kilometers due south of the islands' capital, Stanley, after failing to find any hydrocarbons during drilling to depths of almost 2,500 meters. Chief Executive Tim Bushell said although the result was a disappointment, Toroa is the first well ever drilled in the South Falklands Basin, an enormous virgin frontier for oil exploration. Falkland Oil & Gas's licenses, in which mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. holds a 51% stake, cover roughly 100,000 square kilometers and contain many other prospects, a spokesman added. Falkland Oil & Gas and Borders & Southern Petroleum PLC, which is also exploring in the southern basin, are currently scouting for a drilling rig capable of reaching depths much greater than Toroa. Shares in Falkland Oil & Gas tumbled 53% on the London Stock Exchange Monday to 95.50 pence. Borders & Southern shares fell 9% to 65.50 pence. The southern basin is a true frontier and is less well understood geologically than the North Falklands Basin, said Keith Morris, an analyst at brokerage Evolution Securities. A consortium of companies including Royal Dutch Shell PLC did some drilling in the northern basin in the late 1990s, and it is there, several thousand miles away from Toroa, that Rockhopper Exploration PLC made a discovery at a prospect called Sea Lion in May. Further drilling will be required to prove oil can be produced commercially from the discovery but estimates suggest Sea Lion could contain about 242 million barrels of oil that could be recovered, according to figures published in June. Another northern basin prospect, Liz, drilled earlier by Desire Petroleum PLC, didn't find much oil. The efforts to plumb the waters near the Falklands for oil has drawn diplomatic protests from Argentina. The islands, 300 miles off the Argentine coast, remain in British hands following a brief but bloody war over their sovereignty between the U.K. and Argentina almost 30 years ago. Argentinian officials previously condemned the exploration activities as "illegal." The U.K. said the exploration is a perfectly legitimate commercial activity. Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@dowjones.com