Rockhopper Exploration plc’s partner has indicated that the final investment decision has moved from late 2024 to mid-2025 with first oil during Q4 2027 at Sea Lion in the North Falkland Basin.
AREAS
The company added that the gross capital expenditure needed to first oil had risen to US$1.4 billion due to inflation but the project economics remained “highly robust”.
Operator Navitas Petroleum LP published the figure on the North Falkland Basin asset as well as a revised NFB independent resource report by Netherland Sewell & Associates.
The October 2024 report has categorised the resources into northern, central and southern development areas for a total 35 wells.
The northern area will use a single FPSO with two separate drilling campaigns of phase I and II to recover 319 MMbbls of oil in total, slightly higher than the previous figure of 312 MMbbls.
The front-end engineering design for the FPSO began in November 2024.
Phase I consists of 11 wells with approximately six drilled and completed prior to first oil, while phase II will be for 12 wells
Operations on the central development area, containing Zebedee, Casper and other associated fans, will comprise 12 wells also as part of phase I.
Gross 2C development pending oil resources are expected to increase from 312 MMbbls to 532 MMbbls out of overall 917 MMbbls certified discovered oil resources in the NFB, said Rockhopper.
Navitas has started work on the field development plan for central development area’s phase I.
The southern area aims to develop fans around the Isobel / Elaine discovery which is in the “development on hold” category.
Rockhopper holds a 35% working interest in Sea Lion and associated NFB licences.