Eirik Raude readies for Falklands campaign

The latest drilling campaign offshore the Falkland Islands is expected to start next month, partner Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) said this morning.

Announcing that the rig for the campaign, Ocean Rig's Eirik Raude drilling rig has started mobilization from West Africa, FOGL laid out the drilling program for the six-well campaign, part operated by Premier Oil and part by Noble Energy, in which FOGL has stakes in four wells. 

The first well will be the Premier-operated Zebedee well which will test the southern lobe of the Sea Lion field, which is moving towards a phased development project. The Isobel Deep well, also located in the North Falklands Basin will be the second well in the program. 

In order to reduce the cost of multiple rig moves around the Falkland Islands, a slightly modified drilling order is now being considered, so that the rig remains in the north basin for four consecutive wells, and then move to the south basin for the remaining two wells. The four for the wells following Zebedee and Isobel, said FOGl, are now being considered to be:

  • Jayne East, North Falkland Basin, License PL004
  • Chatham, North Falkland Basin, License PL03
  • Humpback, South Falkland Basin, southern license area
  • Second Noble operated well, South or East Falkland Basin, to be decided


FOGL said that interpretation of the 3D seismic acquired over the South Falkland Basin licenses was progressing well. but "given the range of new prospects identified, this work is still ongoing and will not be completed until the end of March 2015," said the company. 

Three potential options are being looked at: Stingray, Scharnhorst Noror Starfish.  

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