Sea Lion runs into setback as financing delays Falkland Islands’ $1.4B oil project

Israel’s Navitas Petroleum has put off a final investment decision (FID) for its giant Sea Lion oil project in the North Falkland Basin (NFB), pushing it to the second half of the year for Phase 1 to put a financing plan in place.

The final investment decision for the Sea Lion oil project in the North Falkland Basin (NFB) was bumped to 2025 last year following a cost hike to $1.4 billion for Phase 1. Navitas’ partner, Rockhopper Exploration, has confirmed the signing of a lead technical and lending bank mandate, with the financing plan now including senior bank debt.

While the firm reported positive initial feedback from potential providers of capital to the financing, the timing for the FID has changed and is now expected in H2 2025 to allow for the bank to complete due diligence.

Located approximately 220 kilometers to the north of the Falkland Islands in Block 14/10, the Sea Lion field in the production license areas PL032 and PL004b encapsulates the proposed developments of phases 1 and 2, which are envisioned to be developed via a single floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) with two drilling campaigns.

After the project’s field development plan (FDP) was updated to include an initial development stage, targeting 312 million barrels of oil (mmbbls), the FDP for the project was sent for approval. The certified gross 2C resources in the overall North Falkland Basin got a boost from 712 mmbbls to 791 mmbbls.

The Northern Area phases 1 and 2 will be developed using a redeployed and upgraded FPSO that is expected to be secured upon FID, while the Northern Area Phase 3 and the Central Area phases 1 and 2 will require a substantially larger replacement FPSO to be identified and secured.

Sam Moody, Chief Executive of Rockhopper Exploration, commented: “We continue to work with operator Navitas in moving the Sea Lion project towards FID. With work on financing for the development beginning to gather pace and continued progress on the technical side, we look forward to providing the market with further updates.”

Navitas Petroleum, which sees Sea Lion as “the next big thing,” is the operator of the project with a 65% working interest while Rockhopper holds the remaining 35% stake. Material upside, including Isobel-Elaine, a discovered oil field to the south of Sea Lion, was also identified and could be developed under future phases.