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PEAK'S EXPERTISE ENGAGED BY DESIRE FOR FALKLANDS DRILLING CAMPAIGN
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DAVID TELFER
09:00 - 12 April 2005
Aberdeen company Peak Well Management has won a contract to manage a project likely to be worth several millions of pounds to explore for oil in the prospective Falklands basin in the south Atlantic.
Peak has been engaged by Desire Petroleum to carry out detailed well-test design and drilling project management on a planned three-well programme targeting potentially more than a billion barrels of oil.
The job will also involve contracting for all services and execution of the drilling, including materials and logistics.
Desire's chief executive, Ian Duncan, said yesterday that three wells were planned at this stage but the contract value to Peak would depend on the number of wells eventually drilled. He added that Desire, which last month raised 25million in a share placing, was trying to hire a rig to undertake the drilling, and hoped to find one in waters offshore Brazil.
Desire - named after HMS Desire, which made the first recorded sighting of the Falklands in 1592 - is aiming to start drilling late this year or early in 2006 after acquiring some promising seismic data.
Peak, a well-construction and performance specialist which operates globally with a staff of more than 70, recently announced plans to expand its workforce.
The company, which will deliver up to 30 wells worldwide this year for operators, including 20 in the North Sea, is forecasting a sustained growth in the demand for its international well project-management services next year.
Peak is looking to recruit up to 15 key personnel. The posts will be based at its offices in Aberdeen, Houston, Perth and Dubai.
The Aberdeen company was named most promising firm recently at the Scottish Offshore Achievement Awards.
Bob Lyons, managing director of Peak Well Management, is leaving for the Falklands today, with Desire's chairman Colin Phipps and Mr Duncan to hold talks with the islands' government on the drilling campaign.
Mr Duncan said the last wells drilled off the Falklands in 1998 were now much better understood thanks to the latest seismic data.
The research and development projects manager of Aberdeen firm READ Well Services will take the stage at an oil conference in Houston, Texas, today to announce a breakthrough technology.
Fraser Louden and his co-authors from Statoil will speak about the development of a new product called the HETS Hydraulically Expanded Internal Casing Patch, which can be run into a live well on coiled tubing and expanded into place using direct hydraulic pressure, thereby giving a permanent steel repair.