Desire draws blank at Rachel

15th Oct 2010 07:55

Desire Petroleum's 14/15-1 well on the Rachel prospect in the North Falkland Basin, has reached a total depth of 2,877 metres, but initial wireline logging showed no oil or gas."The Rachel well has provided much new valuable data on the distribution of the reservoir targets within the Eastern Flank play and in particular the calibration of the 3D seismic data for sandstone prediction. Our understanding of this play type is rapidly evolving but one of the biggest remaining uncertainties relates to the oil charging mechanism from the mature oil source rock to the fan sandstones," Desire said.Desire said the well will now be sidetracked to evaluate the prospectivity of sandstone found in the upper target of the zone. "The sidetrack will commence when the present logging operations are complete," it added. The Rachel well is the first in a likely four well drilling campaign operated by Desire. Following the 14/15-1Z sidetrack it is intended to move the rig to the next location 25/5-1 on the Dawn/Jacinta prospect in the Desire 100% Tranche I licence, the statement said.Shares in Desire plunged after the announcement, while Rockhopper, which has a 7.5% interest in Rachel, was also sharply lower.