RE: News1 Jun 2026 18:45
Anth72. I had never invested before and after watching the Falklands debacle of 1998 when the Borgny Dolphin was used to drill 6 wildcats with hopeless 2D seismic I phoned Colin Phipps, then the CEO of Desire. He was an excellent geologist and told what a farce the drilling had been, the last well or two they just played hit or miss and it was miss.
I phoned him a few times and he was really helpful, utterly convinced he knew where the oil was if only they could have bothered to do 3D seismic. He told the best acreage had been taken by RKH (there is also another one no one has drilled yet). Colin was getting on in years and the helm of Desire was taken over by his son (no comment).
The Ocean Guardian was duly sent to the Falklands in April 2010. My wife had left me with our two very young daughters (5 and 7) in 2009 and I divorced her in March 2010. I was strapped for cash but it was 'do or die' so I bought shares in RKH, not that many but they were cheap as chips. I remember the day, May 10th 2010, the sp started to move up on opening, and moved up by the hour. It was amazing to watch, it literally took off and kept going. I knew this was either a cruel hoax or Rockhopper had hit the sweet spot. Then came the RNS and the wonderful photo with the crew on the deck of the Ocean Guardian with the flare blazing away from another part of the rig in the background. I had bought most of my handful of shares for 30pish but bought a few more as the sp dropped to 20p, I think on the 9th May.
I can't explain what it's like to be utterly broke and watch your only investment rise continuously throughout the day in 4p, 8p or even 10p increments. I couldn't believe it.
I made £90,000 that day and kept the shares until I sold at £3.80 each.
I have been able to take my daughters on holiday to the Greek Islands many times, on a Med cruise, to Thailand twice and make sure they never went without anything they needed. And I could stay at home and do all the school runs, shopping, cleaning etc.
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