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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (504)	3/6/1998 11:02:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

INTERVIEW-Desire Petroleum bullish about Falklands By Michael Rank LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Desire Petroleum Ltd hopes to raise funds on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) this month as part of its plan to drill for oil off the Falkland Islands, its chairman, Colin Phipps, said on Thursday. ''We are looking to raise 10 to 15 million pounds later this month. There is always doubt as to the timing in the final days, but that is the current programme,'' Phipps said in an interview with Reuters. He said Desire was committed to drilling at least one well in one of the two tranches in which it is a partner with Britain's Lasmo Plc (LSMR.L) as operator. The five operators in the seven tranches north of the Falklands have undertaken to drill a total of at least five wells. Desire is operator in two tranches as well as partner in two others. Phipps said he broadly agreed with an assessment by the British Geological Survey that there is a one in six chance of finding oil off the Falklands. So far as the AIM listing was concerned, Phipps was not greatly concerned about the fact that the oil price is around four-year lows as production off the Falklands was not likely to begin for three to five years. ''I would prefer the price to be higher...but the immediate oil price is not going to have much of an effect,'' Phipps said, adding that $18-19 a barrel for Brent crude was forecast over the next few years, against $14 for now. He said the south Atlantic off the Falklands was a virgin area so far as oil was concerned -- ''one of the largest areas in the world without a single well.'' He said geophysical surveys north of the Falklands were encouraging, showing very large structures with sediments 30,000 feet thick. ''There are sufficiently large reservoirs in the structures to contain economically viable oilfields,'' he added. Phipps said oil production, if and when it eventually starts, would be via floating platforms and there would be no need to build a large base on the Falkland Islands themselves. The current drilling programme is for 12 to 15 months, but Phipps said that if results were encouraging it could continue for up to five years before companies gave up the search for oil. The seven tranches are in water depths of 150 to 500 metres and are 100 to 250 km north of the islands. They cover an area of about 11,000 square km and each is equivalent to six to 12 North Sea blocks. A semi-submersible rig, the Borgny Dolphin, is due to arrive off the Falklands next month, with first drilling by Amerada Hess in May. Phipps said 120 Falkland islanders held shares in Desire, equivalent to seven percent of the equity. Phipps was chairman of Clyde Petroleum Plc until it was taken over last year by Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. Clyde Expro is a partner with Desire in the two Lasmo-operated tranches. Phipps, a former chairman of environmental group Falklands Conservation, said detailed environmental surveys had been conducted to prevent any possible oil pollution in an area famous for its vast penguin colonies as well as elephant seals and albatrosses. Desire is named after the British naval vessel from which the Falklands were first sighted by Europeans in 1592. Britain and Argentina went to war over the islands exactly 400 years later in 1992, but the two sides have since agreed to set aside their differences to allow for oil exploration. The other operators north of the Falklands are Amerada Hess, Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS) and IPC (IRP.TO) biz.yahoo.com