Desire Petroleum

<>Desire Petroleum plc (Desire) is a UK company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) dedicated to exploring for oil and gas in the North Falkland Basin.

Desire has recently completed a 6 well exploration programme. The Liz well encountered dry gas and gas condensate at 2 separate levels while other wells recorded shows.
Together with the Rockhopper Exploration Sea Lion oil discovery in the licence to the north, these wells have provided significant encouragement for the potential of the North Falkland Basin. The oil at Sea Lion is of particular interest as this has demonstrated that oil is trapped in potentially significant quantities in a fan sandstone on the east flank of the basin. It is believed that over 50% of this east flank play fairway is on Desire operated acreage.

Desire has now completed new 3D seismic acquisition which provides coverage over the east flank play, Ann, Pam and Helen prospects. The results from fast-track processing of priority areas are provided in the 2011 CPR. A farm-out to Rockhopper has been announced. The revised equities are shown on the licence map (subject to regulatory approval and completion of the farm-in well). Desire Petroleum

Rockhopper Exploration

British Geological Survey

Argos Resources



Latest Press Realeses from Desire

http://www.falklandnews.com/public/story.cfm?get=3858&source=3

Daily Hydrocarbons Record: 25/04/06
April 24, 2006
by J. Brock (FINN)

HYDROCARBONS NEWS



(New Feature)



By J. Brock (FINN)



At 1800hrs LMT on Monday, 24 April 2005 the price per barrel of Brent Crude was listed on Londons ICE Futures Exchange at $73.78. This is down $1.57 from its recorded high on Friday off $75.35 Per Barrel.



At present the trend seems to be fluctuating upwards with excuses for the rise being the on-going dispute with Iran over nuclear power, OPECs refusal to increase supply and rumours that oil reserves in the Middle East are past peak. Irans President, in a two-hour press conference today said that he did not think the UN would sanction his country because Iran only wants to use nuclear power for peaceful means.



Local Relevance: Though the data is excellent with several hundred prospects awaiting 3D seismic in the North and South Falkland Basins, there are no semi-submersible exploration rigs available to do exploration drilling at the moment. The unavailability is due to other exploration priorities as well as the cost of the rigs in an extremely tight market. There is no indication of where the Falklands are in the queue for a rig.



Comments from companies involved in the North and South Falkland Basins are welcome. Please use the contact section on SARTMA to get in touch.

Final Results

RNS Number:9872B
Desire Petroleum PLC
26 April 2006


DESIRE PETROLEUM PLC

("the Company")

FINAL RESULTS


Chairman's statement
The results for the year ended 31 December 2005 are set out below. The profit
shown after tax was entirely due to interest received and exchange gains. The
latter resulting from your Board's decision to hold most of the Company's funds
in dollars. As in previous years, overheads, which are covered by interest
received, have been kept low despite the very considerable increase in activity
consequent upon preparations to drill in the North Falkland Basin.

The focus of the year's activities was on preparing a three-well drilling
programme in Tranches C and D in the North Falkland Basin and sourcing a
suitable drilling rig to fulfil it. There is a well-publicised, world-wide
shortage of drilling rigs which has severely affected the entire Industry, not
least Desire. Rig-rental rates are also at historically high levels.

In view of the extraordinarily tight rig market and the major increase in costs,
your Board, whilst continuing actively to secure a rig, has reviewed the
Company's strategy for renewing drilling in Tranches C and D. At the moment,
there appear to be two alternative options: to await a change in the rig market
or to seek a partner with access to a drilling rig. As the second of these
options does not preclude the first, a programme to identify and secure a
suitable partner was initiated early this year (2006).

Possible partners include oil companies with long-term rig contracts or drilling
companies themselves. In the past, drilling companies have not normally been
interested in taking equity positions in drilling programmes except when the rig
market was exceptionally weak and it was one of the few ways of utilising their
hardware. However, the current, historically-high, rig-rental rates have had the
effect of making many drilling companies cash-rich; this factor, together with
the attraction of major multiples from successful equity participation in oil
and/or gas discoveries, has caused them to take a fresh look at equity deals and
a number of drilling companies are now prepared to discuss such ventures. Even
so, most drilling companies do not, themselves, have spare rig capacity because
most of their rigs are tied-up in long-term contracts.

Nevertheless, Desire has entered into discussions with a number of companies
with rigs interested in equity in Tranches C and D. The nature of the
participations under discussion may not take the usual form of industry
farm-outs and your Board is considering innovative ways of structuring them. It
is not yet possible to say that these discussions will be successful nor, if
they are, at what date a rig will become available.

The rig market itself is likely, in due course, to return, as it has done in the
past, to more normal conditions of supply and demand. Rig supply will increase
as new rigs are built and demand can be expected to slacken, either because of a
lack of exploration success or because major new discoveries are made. Current
exploration success rates are poor world-wide and, if this continues to be the
case, more rigs will become available as companies draw their exploration horns
in. As a consequence of this lack of exploration success, the attractiveness of
the North Falkland Basin, with its world-class source rock, is likely to
increase.

Despite the lack of a rig, work has continued on preparations for the drilling
programme. Peak Well Management has been appointed to oversee the programme,
nine drilling locations have been selected, well designs are being finalised,
initial site surveys have been carried out using the 3D seismic survey, the
Environmental Impact Assessment has been submitted to the Falkland Island
Government (FIG), the well tubulars and wellheads (of which there is also a
world-wide shortage) have been ordered and a myriad other requirements and
contracts, such as for waste disposal, helicopters, crew-change facilities,
etc., are being put in place. Apart from the requirement by the UK Health and
Safety Executive, on behalf of FIG, to approve the safety management system of
the rig when contracted, all of the essential plans for the drilling programme
are well underway or in place and drilling will be able to commence as soon as
an approved rig is acquired.

One strategy option, so far rejected by your Board, is that of farming-in to the
existing exploration drilling programmes of other companies. Although several
opportunities have been considered, none were anywhere near as attractive,
either technically or in terms of potential upside, as drilling in Tranches C
and D. Accordingly, the decision has been taken to conserve the Company's funds
and to continue to concentrate all efforts in the North Falkland Basin.

I am very pleased to welcome Mr Edward Wisniewski to the Board. Eddie is a
Chartered Accountant with extensive oil-industry experience whose contributions,
both as a non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee, have
already been substantial. All of my other Board colleagues continue to play
essential roles, in particular
Dr Ian Duncan in his capacity as Chief Executive.

Although the past year has been a frustrating one, not least for your Board, I
believe that the strategy adopted is the correct one which will, in due course,
lead to a resumption of drilling in the North Falkland Basin.

Yours sincerely,


Dr Colin B. Phipps

Strange that this bit is mentioned

I am very pleased to welcome Mr Edward Wisniewski to the Board. Eddie is a
Chartered Accountant with extensive oil-industry experience whose contributions,
both as a non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee, have
already been substantial. All of my other Board colleagues continue to play
essential roles, in particular

Also from the report that

Nevertheless, Desire has entered into discussions with a number of companies
with rigs interested in equity in Tranches C and D.

It does make you wonder how close we are near to a deal been done as my way of thinking is that we must be at the point that we have Edward finalising the numbers to see if the deal will work with a oil rig company..why else mention him or why do desire need him unless there are numbers been crunch to get this deal to work.

Am surprised that the share price has even fallen today as I read the report as very positive as we are aware already of the shortfalls with a tight rig market and the high cost of requiring a rig.

Not a time to sell but a time to sit tight or top up as a deal could come quicker than we think.

Diamond results sparkle

By Upstream staff


Contract oil driller Diamond Offshore Drilling has seen its profits rise in the first quarter as demand from the industry remained strong and drove record-high average daily rig rates.


The company posted a profit of $145.3 million, or $1.06 per share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $30.1 million, or 23 cents per share. Revenue rose to $447.7 million from $258.8 million a year earlier.

The company said "virtually all" of the market conditions that made for a strong 2005 remain in place this year, and the market remains robust.

Hi all

Thanks Markymar.

Oh well DES closed lower today with a gap down. The rising support line which DES has been following since 08/12/05 has been tested today. Todays candle is a hammer, which has bullish implications. With the rising trend line still in tact and DES at the bottom of the Bollinger bands, it looks like we should see some support tomorrow. The rising trend line is at 0.3150p therfore we are looking for DES to close above this to confirm the support. If we see a gap up and DES continues up we will have a morning star pattern. This is regarded as a good buy indicator.





Good Luck All

Eddie

Cheers Eddie, strange why Finn is doing a daily report on Hydrocarbons now.

Record (26/04/06)
April 26, 2006
by J. Brock (FINN)

HYDROCARBONS DAILY RECORD REPORT



By J. Brock (FINN)



At 1800hrs LMT on Wednesday, 26 April 2005 Light Sweet Crude was $71.93 and Brent Crude was $72.88 per barrel.



At present the trend seems to be fluctuating upwards with one or two days of decline. This is the third day of basic decline since Brent Crude exceeded $75.00 per barrel over last weekend. Rhetoric is quiet OPECs supplies remain steady and President Bushs announcement about relaxing federal environmental fuel standards and diverting deliveries from reserves has helped to decrease crude oil prices but the decrease needs to follow a steady downward trend to be of any use in keeping crude prices at manageable levels.



Ideally a price of $45.00 to $55.00 per barrel would help to bring energy costs down, while still being viable enough to tempt investors to frontier areas like the Falklands.

LOCAL IMPLICATIONS:



The high cost of oil has increased prices due to businesses and Governments desire to recover losses. This affected those on fixed incomes and the lower paid more severely, with those earning more having less disposable income than this time last year. While there will be fuel subsidies this winter, it is not yet known what they will be because the subsidy has not been agreed.



The only thing needed on the exploration side is a rig that will be suitable for the North Falkland Basin as well as one suitable for drilling in the South Falkland Basin. As yet there is no rig because oil operators want to extract as much as they can from known reserves before they focus on frontier areas like the Falklands.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=408597&in_page_id=3

Looks like the city boys cant read as they said Desire lost money.......i think not they made quiet a bit on the return over 2 million...tut tut!

MRP is a better bet at similar sp

...............but mrp isn't sitting on a potential 2.2bn barrels of recoverable oil.

Call me a cynic but when a deal is about to be announced one day then it would benefit institutions if an initial RNS was released first discussing the possibilities without mention of a specific deal which would then shake out a few weak holders allowing a large purchase, or two, at the pre news price by the institution. Their other way in of course is with a private placing which they would jump at if they knew that would clinch the deal. I wonder if that was such an RNS that we just had? Time will tell.

Time will tell Lucky

HYDROCARBONS DAILY RECORD (27/04/06)


By J. Brock (FINN)


At 1800hrs LMT on Thursday, 27 April 2005 Light Sweet Crude was $70.97 and Brent Crude was $70.91 per barrel. This is the fourth straight day of decline in crude prices.



Contributing factors include the partnership between the Peoples Republic of China and Nigeria, announced in Abuja today. China wants to look for hydrocarbons in the Niger Delta and as a sweetener will put $4Billion into Nigerias infrastructure.


Prices are kept high because of the tight control on supply by OPEC Countries. Demands on the limited supply are due to high fuel consumption in the United States as well as in emerging economies like that of the Peoples Republic of China.

Decreased demand for heating products in the Northern Hemisphere during the warmer months will benefit supply.


LOCAL IMPLICATIONS:


Though it is coming to the winter season, the smaller population in the Southern Hemisphere will not put as great a demand on reserves as does the population in the Northern Hemisphere.




Purchase prices of bulk fuel for heating remain a concern locally as price increases are reflected at the retail end. The knock-on affect is higher prices not only for petroleum products but on the services those products help to support.



FOGL Progress Report - Wednesday 26th April 2006


GSI Gulf Pacific is on location, on the FOGL licence areas and has acquired a total
of 137km of 2D seismic since the last report was issued on 3 April 2006. This makes
a total of 12,630km since the beginning of the Phase 2 Survey in June 2005.

Desire are right with rig owners making bumper profits.


Pride soars on strong rig market

By Upstream staff


US driller Pride International has reported a preliminary net profit of $70.5 million, or $0.40 per share, in the first-quarter of 2006.

The increase over the net profit of $18.3 million, or $0.12 per share, that it made in the same period the previous year was due in part to gains on the sale of assets of about $17.5 million.


Operating profit was up by about 85.7% to $129.8 million while revenues for the quarter were also up from $466.2 million in 2005 to $566.9 million in 2006.


Pride said that dayrates increased for all of its rig types and operating regions, particularly for its semi-submersibles in West Africa and the Mediterranean Sea and for jack-ups in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Markymar,

137 kms. in 3 weeks, that's criminal I've known sea slugs travel faster.

They must have some problems, or some real bad weather.

Morning Capt,

Will get rowing boat out am sure you and i could shoot quicker than that!

Whats the average a boat can shooot in a day?

Can only delay FOGL even more, they seem to be going backwards at the moment.

http://www.britishbulls.com/StockPage.asp?CompanyTicker=DES&MarketTicker=RESOURCES&Typ=S

Back to a BUY IF

Pride Fleet up date 27th April, still looking tight,lets hope a deal can be done!

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/72/72166/ContractStatusReport050106.pdf

On long lines (24 hours shooting) around 220 - 230 kms.
It could go as high as 240 kms, but you would need a shorter record length or a longer shot point interval.

The usual shooting speed is around 4.6 - 4.8 knots. (@ 9 kms. ish. an hour)

Cheers Capt,

Here is another one with bumper profits today.

Fred Olsen back in black

By Upstream staff


Norwegian oil driller Fred Olsen Energy today posted a bigger-than-expected surge back into profit for the first quarter and said it expected the offshore market to remain strong.

Earnings before interest and tax increased to Nkr268 million ($42.80 million) from a loss of Nkr27 million in the same period last year.

Analysts had expected on average an increase to Nkr219 million. Estimates ranged from Nkr154 million to Nkr255 million.

"The high demand for offshore drilling services is expected to continue during the next few years as a result of renewed focus on reserve replacement supported by high demand for oil and gas and expectations of continued high energy prices," the company said.

Olsen also said the balance between supply and demand for oil drilling units worldwide had tightened.

"This development has been reflected in significant increases in dayrates," it said.

Operating revenue jumped to Nkr936 million in the first quarter from Nkr570 million last year.

Pip Pip for now!

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=31673

Weekly Offshore Rig Review: Limited Availability
RigLogix Thursday, April 27, 2006


Worldwide offshore rig utilization inched up slightly this week as two idle rigs started new contracts and one rig went off contract. The worldwide utilization rate now stands at 84.5%, which is the highest utilization rate seen this year, and surpasses peak utilization for all of last year as well.

With current offshore rig utilization pushing new highs, we'll take a look forward at future utilization by examining the

fleet availabilty with in the jackup, semisub, and drillship segments.

Jackup Availability
Among jackup rigs, current utilization stands at 87.2% with 341 of 391 jackups under contract worldwide. Looking forward to the rest of 2006, 75% of the available jackup rig time has already been contracted, and only 25% remains. Looking further out, for 2007, 46% of the available rig time for currently active jackups has already been contracted out, leaving about 55% of the jackup fleet's time still available for new contracts in 2007. And for 2008, only about 23% of available rig time for currently active jackups has been contracted.

Semisub Availability
Among semisubs, 143 of 165 rigs are under contract, providing current utilization of 86.7% worldwide. For the rest of 2006, those 165 semis have about 86% of their time already locked into contracts, leaving just 14% availability among semisubs for the rest of the year. For 2007, about 73% of the rig time for currently active semisubs has been locked into contracts. While in 2008, availabilty finally reaches above 50% for semisubs, with only about 48% of the rig time for active semis having been contracted.

Drillship Availability
Among the world's 38 drillships, 29 are currently under contract for a worldwide utilization rate of 76.3%. During the rest of 2006, among the world's leading drillship contractors whose ships account for 32 of 39 active rigs (82% of the fleet), 90% of available rig time has been contracted. Looking at the availability of those drillships in 2007, more than 92% of the available drillship time is already under contract, with the remaining time representing primarily maintenance downtime. Even for 2008 84% of the available rig time for these drillships is already contracted.

Overall Availability
Looking at the overall picture for MODU availability, the rest of the year has little room for new rig contracts, with 78% of available rig time already contracted. As the year progresses, 9 new build jackups are set to be delivered, which will help to provide some additional rig time, but 5 of those new jackups already have at least one contract set to start when they leave the shipyards. Another 21 jackups will be delivered in 2007, and only 3 of those rigs have contracts setup for when they leave the yards, so there will be even more jackup availabilty in 2007.

In the fleet segments with the least availability, semis and drillships, only one new drillship is set to be delivered late next year, which will have little effect on the lack of availability. An additional semisub is also scheduled to be delivered late next year, but it is already contracted.


Conclusion
The worldwide offshore rig fleet is pushing new high levels of utilization, and a majority of the fleet's available time is contracted out through 2007. With 30 new jackups being delivered over that time period, some new availability will be added, but only within the jackup fleet, which has the lowest level of commited rig time among the three major MODU types. The tight market amongst drillships and semisubs will persist into 2008, when 11 new semisubs and 3 drillships are set to be delivered. But, with many of those rigs already landing contracts or not even beginning construction until long-term contracts were already in place, available rig team will continue to be limited.

Nice article about what is going on offshore.

http://ogj.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=ARTCL&ARTICLE_ID=253486&VERSION_NUM=2&p=9