DES.L Regulatory News (DES)

19 Dec 2005 07:00

Desire Petroleum PLC19 December 2005 Desire Petroleum plc (Desire) Drilling Update Desire is pleased to announce that the Environmental Impact Assessment, requiredfor drilling in Tranches C and D in the North Falkland Basin, has been submittedfor approval to the Falkland Islands Government. The full documentation will beposted on the Desire website. In order to increase the flexibility of the drilling programme, a detailedanalysis of the shallow 3D seismic data, for site- survey purposes, at ninedrilling locations, within Tranches C and D in the North Falkland Basin, hasbeen submitted for comment to the Health and Safety Executive (acting for theFalkland Islands Government (FIG)). In addition, and in response to long lead times for the supply of drillingequipment, Desire has decided to order now, all of the casing needed to fulfil athree-well drilling programme. When received, this casing will be stored inAberdeen ready for the drilling programme. Work is now well advanced on all of the fronts necessary to commence drilling assoon as the rig market allows and Desire will continue to review both itsdrilling programme and well design in order to meet changing circumstances whena suitable rig does become available. At the recent conference in London on Commercial and Technical Strategies forManaging Exploratory Risk in Frontier Regions Ian Cross, Vice-President of IHSEnergy presented a paper entitled " What can we really expect from unexploredareas?- Global elephant hunting. "In this paper he highlighted the significant exploration wells to be drilled inthe World in the next 18 months ie wells with the potential to find a majorfield with 250 million barrels or more of recoverable oil. In this category heincluded Desire's wells to be drilled in the North Falkland Basin.He also noted that there are very few areas in the World where oil fields ofthis size can now be found with discovery levels now back at the levels lastseen in the 1950s.IHS is a leading global provider of consultancy services and technicalinformation to the oil and gas industry and as such are well placed to provide aglobal overview of the oil exploration scene. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange