 | |
| Company type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hydrocarbon exploration |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Colin Phipps |
| Headquarters | Malvern,England |
Key people | Dr Ian Duncan (Chief Executive) |
| Services | Oil exploration and production |
| -£1.47m (2008) | |
Desire Petroleum plc was anoil andgasexploration company headquartered inMalvern,England. It owned offshore exploration and production licences in theNorth Falkland Basin in the waters north of theFalkland Islands and its core focus was to develop the basin into a major new hydrocarbon province.
Desire Petroleum was acquired byFalkland Oil and Gas[1] for £61million on 5 December 2013. Falkland Oil & Gas was itself acquired byRockhopper Exploration plc in November 2015.[2]
Desire Petroleum was founded in 1996 byDr Colin Phipps, a former geologist forRoyal Dutch Shell. The company was named afterDesire, the ship, captained byJohn Davis, which discovered the Falkland Islands in 1592. In 1998 the company was floated on theAlternative Investment Market.
Desire Petroleum were awarded licences for drilling in the Falklands in 1997, and test drilling was carried out in 1998. Oil was not found in commercial quantities, and theprice of oil, until 2007-8 was not high enough to make it viable, and exploration companies left the area. A3D seismic survey was acquired in 2004 which showed great oil potential.
In February 2010 Desire began a programme of exploratory drilling, with costs shared by farming out drilling slots toRockhopper Exploration (ofSalisbury,Wiltshire) and Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd, in the North Falkland Basin. In the northern section of the basin this covers theprospects of Rachel, Kath, Pam, Ann, Anna, Liz, South Orca, Ninky, Beth, Jayne and Helen. In the southern section are Dawn, Alpha, Kate, Ruth and Barbara.
The first well was categorised as a gas discovery, with one other gas event and two sets of oil shows encountered. Stock market disappointment that the first well was not an immediate commercial discovery of oil led to an immediate slump in share price, though Desire continue to analyse the data gathered in order to assist with the remainder of the drilling programme.
The second well, drilling for partner companyRockhopper Exploration, was an oil discovery which further confirmed the geological model for the North Falkland Basin for Desire and Rockhopper's remaining prospects.[3]
The company was sold in December 2013 toFalkland Oil and Gas[4] for £61million.
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