Borders & Southern Makes Significant Discovery Offshore Falklands

Borders & Southern announces it has made a significant gas condensate discovery approximately 140 kilometers south of the Falkland Islands.

Well 61/17-1 was drilled to a total depth of 4876m and came in very close to prognosis. As predicted, the strong AVO anomaly represented a porous sandstone reservoir containing hydrocarbons.

The well was drilled with the Leiv Eiriksson, a semi-submersible rig with harsh environment capability, owned by OceanRig.

Whilst drilling, the well encountered good hydrocarbon shows from 4633m down to 4810m. The main reservoir interval, comprising good quality massive sandstone, was found to be 84.5m thick with net pay of 67.8m. Average porosity for this interval is 22%, with maximum values reaching 30%.

Fluid samples from the reservoir have been recovered and will be brought back to the UK for analysis. Once the lab analysis is complete and the results integrated with other data collected from the well, the Company will be able to comment on the liquid content of the reservoir.

“It is too early to give an accurate resource estimate, but this large simple structure, with a seismic amplitude anomaly measuring 26 square kilometres, is likely to contain significant volumes,” said Borders & Southern in a statement.

The well has successfully proven a working source rock, good quality reservoir and competent seals in the South Falkland Basin. The Company has an extensive prospect inventory to exploit this success.

The Company now intends to complete wireline logging operations, plug and abandon the well in line with regulatory requirements and move to the Stebbing prospect, the second well in the current drilling programme. An announcement will be made once this well has spudded.

Chief Executive, Howard Obee, commented:

“We’re delighted to have made a discovery with the Company’s first exploration well and to have opened up a new hydrocarbon basin. There is clearly a lot of work ahead of us to understand the size and value of the discovery, but it is a great start and the potential of the basin is exciting. I’d like to thank all the many people that have contributed to this project for their fantastic efforts.”

[mappress]
Offshore Energy Today Staff, April 23, 2012