Shares in oil exploration firm Desire Petroleum have rocketed after the company found oil off the Falklands Islands.
Malvern-based Desire (DES) said it made a discovery in the North Falkland Basin, raising hopes that a major hydrocarbon basin can be opened.
Desire said preliminary tests at its closely-watched Rachel North well indicate an oil find, the second discovery this year off Britain’s South Atlantic islands.
Shares in the company rose by 30.75p to 136.75p in early trading after the announcement.
In a statement, the company said: “Preliminary data collected indicate that this well is an oil discovery.
“Desire now intends to complete the wireline logging and wireline sampling programme to obtain more information on the reservoir quality, the hydrocarbon saturations and the fluid type to assess the significance of this discovery.”
Commenting on the well, Desire’s chairman Stephen Phipps said: “It is highly encouraging that the initial results from the Rachel North well endorse both our findings and geological model from the previously drilled Rachel sidetrack well. This discovery combined with Rockhoppers’ Sea Lion discovery confirms our belief that the eastern flank play fairway in the North Falkland Basin is highly prospective and that further oil fields will be discovered in this area.”
