http://www.falklands-oil.com/

http://www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk

http://www.argosresources.com/




Rockhopper was established in 2004 with a strategy to invest in and undertake an offshore oil exploration programme in the North Falkland Basin. It was floated on AIM in August 2005. Rockhopper was the first company to make a commercial oil discovery in the Falklands. Today Rockhopper is the largest acreage holder in the North Falkland Basin, with interests in the Greater Mediterranean region.

Waiting for the rns for PVR....crucial......could rocket up....

Big wigs fly in to FI tomorrow.............

I try not to ramp to much but there are lots of people arriving in the FI...I try be true to thread pull me if wrong.



I am receiving more information tonight to what is going on in the FI tonight, lots of rumours to which oil companies and corporate intuitions which may get involved….it’s looking exciting I still can’t find out agenda it’s all hush hush.
I Have just watched the news with David Cameron on about the Falkland’s and the penny has dropped oil companies around the world are being assured at the highest level both privately and publicly that there are no doubts about the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and that no political risks at all, hence William Hague in Brazil.
“Cameron told MPs that he convened the NSC meeting on the Falklands to ensure "our defences and everything else are in order".

There is a rabbit off here big time…a deal is going down its going to be thrashed in the FI …no walking away.
Am sure the papers will pick up on this soon, good luck all.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-19/britain-s-oil-grab-in-falkland-islands-seen-tripling-u-k-reserves-energy.html


Britain’s Oil Grab in Falkland Islands Seen Tripling U.K. Reserves: Energy

By Brian Swint - Jan 19, 2012 7:01 AM GMT+0700 .

Thirty years after Margaret Thatcher fought a 74-day war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, the prospect of an oil boom is reviving tensions.

Oil explorers are targeting 8.3 billion barrels in the waters around the islands this year, three times the U.K.’s reserves. Borders & Southern Plc will drill the Stebbing prospect next month, one of three Falkland wells that Morgan Stanley ranks among the world’s top 15 offshore prospects this year. Meanwhile, Rockhopper Exploration Plc (RKH) is seeking $2 billion from a larger oil company to develop the Sea Lion field, the islands’ first economically viable oil find.

“The area is underexplored and highly prospective,” said New York-based Morgan Stanley analyst Evan Calio. “These could be like the high-impact wells in Ghana and Brazil a few years ago that opened up a whole host of basins.”

A major drilling success will further raise the political temperature as Argentina maintains its claim over the U.K’s South Atlantic territory, 300 miles (483 kilometers) from the Latin American coast. President Cristina Kirchner said Britain is taking her country’s resources, while Thatcher’s successor David Cameron yesterday accused Argentina of a “colonial” attitude that didn’t account for islanders’ rights.

The world’s largest oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc face a dilemma: whether the potential of a virgin basin outweigh the risk of a worsening international dispute. While producers with interests in Argentina, such as BP Plc, may be put off, others will want to participate, said Tim Bushell, chief executive officer of Falkland Oil & Gas Plc, who’s looking for drilling partners.

‘Sabre Rattling’

“Big oil companies are used to dealing with political risk, and bigger ones than some sabre rattling by Argentina,” Bushell said in a telephone interview, who decline to name the companies he’s talking to. “For every BP, there are other major companies that don’t have an interest in Argentina.”

The Falkland Island government, which manages the territory’s mineral rights for the 2,955 islanders, says the big producers are interested and talking to the companies already active in the region. Of the five U.K.-based explorers that have drilled or plan wells, the largest, Rockhopper, has a market value of 899 million pounds ($1.4 billion).

“The Falklands is at a stage where a big company can take a large share in what could be a big oil province,” said Stephen Luxton, the Falkland Islands’ director of mineral resources. “There is an active program of marketing by the companies here. There are discussions going on, though we can’t name names.”

Patagonian Squid

Falkland Oil & Gas plans to drill the Loligo prospect later this year, a well targeting 4.7 billion barrels of oil. Named after a Patagonian squid, it’s the second-most prospective well planned worldwide this year after one in Namibia, according to Morgan Stanley. The company’s Darwin prospect will follow and ranks sixth on the U.S. bank’s list.

Borders & Southern will start drilling the Darwin prospect by the end of January, which seismic surveys suggest may hold as much as 760 million barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of gas. Stebbing, the target of the company’s second well, may hold as much as 1.2 billion barrels.

Together, the four wells planned for the Falklands this year are searching for about 8.3 billion barrels of oil. The Jubilee field, which was discovered in 2007 and propelled Ghana into one of the world’s top 50 oil states, holds 370 million barrels of reserves. Brazil’s Lula field, drilled in 2006, holds an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

‘New Province’

“There could be significant volumes down there and it would open up a new hydrocarbon province,” Borders & Southern CEO Howard Obee, said in an interview. If our first two wells are successful, “we’d like to do a big drilling program, not only to appraise what we’d find but also drill up additional prospects. To do that, we’d need quite a bit of money.”

While the company will probably be able to sell more shares to determine the size of a discovery in this campaign, it may have to sell stakes in prospects to develop them, said Tracy Mackenzie, an analyst at broker Brewin Dolphin in Edinburgh. Borders & Southern holds a 100 percent interest in its fields.

Rockhopper says its Sea Lion discovery, made in 2010 and which may have more than 400 million barrels of recoverable oil, is commercial and will be developed. Chairman Pierre Jungels said last month that the company is showing drilling to potential partners. The company this month ended a 10-well campaign that lasted two years. It has $100 million in cash after raising 46.5 million pounds ($72 million) in a share placing in October.

Floating Production

That’s just a fraction of the $2 billion the company reckons it will need to get the oil to market. Developers will have to build a floating production and storage unit to load the crude on to tankers. Cairn Energy Plc, Premier Oil Plc and Noble Corp. may be interested in investing, Bank of America Corp. analyst Alejandro Demichelis wrote in a Jan. 16 note.

Spokesmen for BP, Shell, Premier and Cairn declined to comment on whether they’re interested in investing in the Falklands. Exxon and Noble Energy didn’t respond to e-mailed requests for comment.

All the supplies will probably have to come from Europe, about 8,000 miles away. The Falklands consist of two large islands and more than 700 smaller ones, home to the colorful penguins that give Rockhopper its name.

Argentina’s Invasion

Argentina maintains that its sovereignty over the Islands was interrupted in 1833, when British forces occupied the Malvinas Islands, expelling the Argentine population, an act to which the people and government of Argentina never consented. Thatcher sent a task force to retake the islands after Argentina’s military dictatorship invaded the territory on April 2, 1982.

Earlier drilling campaigns show the risk of failure in unproven oil provinces. Shell drilled on the northern side of the islands in the 1990s and found traces of oil before abandoning the prospect in 1998 as crude prices fell to around $10 a barrel. Interest in the region revived as oil prices rose higher than $100 a barrel, though Shell had disposed of its acreage.

Desire Petroleum Plc (DES), which has licenses adjacent to Rockhopper’s, drilled six dry wells in a failed campaign that ended in April. Argos Resources Plc, which also holds licenses in the region, decided not to use a rig after Rockhopper because it couldn’t raise enough money.

The global financial crisis has made it harder for oil explorers to borrow from banks and kept a lid on the amount companies can raise on the market. The oil and gas index of London’s Alternative Investment Market, where all five Falkland explorers are listed, fell 35 percent last year.

That leaves larger companies as the most likely sponsors in the region, and the government said some of them are already involved in talks.

“The majors are always going to be interested when a new basins come on the map,” Morgan Stanley’s Calio said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Swint in London at bswint@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

If nothing else this is making my FKL climb, not far to break even.,.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/4073194/Warren-Buffett-tucks-in-with-520m-of-Tescos-shares.html

ONE of the biggest oil companies in the world is eyeing the Falklands.

Officials from American giant ANADARKO flew to Port Stanley for talks with ROCKHOPPER, the UK company sitting on an estimated 500million barrels of oil in the South Atlantic.

They met Rockhopper exploration chief Dave Bodecott yesterday.

A source said: "The Anadarko private jet flew in on Wednesday night."

Rockhopper hopes to team up with a big gun to develop its Sea Lion oil field.

I dont have any RKH but things may start to happen soon with luck marky

http://en.mercopress.com/2012/01/20/falklands-vessels-can-re-flag-and-operate-in-mercosur-ports-says-hague

Falklands vessels can re-flag and operate in Mercosur ports, says Hague
Ships from the Falkland Islands that are barred from ports in Argentina and other Mercosur trade bloc countries can re-flag as British ships at any time to avoid the ban, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.


Hope so Smiler....double the buys than sells so hoping for a bounce......off down my mine for a while feed them donkeys....clip clop clip clop

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2089475/SMALL-CAP-MOVERS-Falklands-oil-gas-industry-grabs-spotlight.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

SMALL CAP MOVERS: Falklands' oil and gas industry grabs the spotlightBy Jamie Ashcroft, Proactive Investors

Last updated at 2:35 PM on 20th January 2012


Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2089475/SMALL-CAP-MOVERS-Falklands-oil-gas-industry-grabs-spotlight.html#ixzz1k0meissU

It was reported that as many as eight firms may compete to get a stake in Rockhopper’s Sea Lion oilfield development.

You'll upset cyners with ramping like that marky.,.

I have a tax bill to pay also capital gains so i need this share and every other share i hold to go higher.

Cynic has been very quiet of late unless he is shopping at tesco these days.

Think he's sulking for missing asos.,.

i actually have some of these which are running at an ok profit ..... now sitting and waiting

Thought you we still in tesco cynic.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/columns/fox-davies-capital/8071/

Rockhopper (LON:RKH) were also active once again, as press speculation continued to link the likes of Anadarko Petroleum with the troubled region. The stock traded as high as 333p before lunch, after a strong push yesterday. We have been huge fans of the Rockhopper story, and currently have a 600p price target on them. 350p looks to be the next line of resistance, with 310p looking to be support.

i am!

Just reviewing the info I have saved over the last 12 months on Rockhopper, and found this.
Glad I was one of those investors who took no notice.
A Questor share tip in April last year.
Rockhopper is an avoid.

Excerpts.
Although the Falkland oil story is exciting, you are more likely to get rich by investing in "boring" companies (presumably meant banks and the like).
However, the companies exploring in the Falklands would not meet my investment criteria. In fact, you'd probably be better off with a bet on the greyhounds.

Blimey, that greyhound would have had to have bloody good odds, and the race for Falklands oil has only just started.

Double post.

things can change quickly overnight, never mind 10 months!

I think things are moving quickly behind the scenes in RKH.

Until recently the only non-British voices you would hear in Stanley were passengers from visiting cruise ships, scientists about to embark on the big red British Antarctic survey ships, or migrant Chilean workers.

That’s no longer true. The Falkland Islands have struck oil — and the world has arrived.

The Malvina House on Stanley’s waterfront is an upmarket hotel and restaurant. It’s a converted house that used to belong to Malvina Felton — it’s not, as locals are at pains to point out, an unlikely homage to the Argentine name for the Falklands.

Unsurprisingly, the hotel is where the oil workers and executives congregate. In the bar they talk about the prospects for their wells. It’s a small place and hard not to overhear snippets of chat.

The most common foreign accent in the bar is American. Last Wednesday evening, a group of executives from Anadarko of Texas, including one of its executive vice-presidents, Ian Cooling, dined with a team from Rockhopper, the London-listed explorer that thinks it has found nearly 500m recoverable barrels of oil to the north of the islands.

Rockhopper wants a partner. Anadarko is not the only company that has met Rockhopper, but it could be significant that it was in town during the same week as Rockhopper’s director of operations, Dave Bodecott, and that they discussed commercial rig operation scenarios at length the day after the dinner.

Though commercial drilling is years away, the Falkland Islands is making money even from this exploration phase. Rockhopper, and other companies such as Desire Petroleum, have been using a rig tugged all the way from Aberdeen. Amazingly, Rockhopper struck lucky at its first attempt. Desire has drilled half a dozen wells and found nothing, though it does own part of another block where Rockhopper made a second discovery.

The islands’ government has been charging both acreage rental and, in the case of Rockhopper, discovery fees. The revenues helped turn an expected budget deficit last financial year into a surplus of £19m. Businesses have benefited too.

“We were more a seasonal hotel, now we are busy the whole year through,” said Carl Stroud, manager of Malvina House. “Our suppliers are happier because we are buying in more supplies — more fresh produce, meat, fish. It’s one big chain really. Oil people like to spend. They like good food.”

When, or if, oil starts to come out of the ground, the government will make money in two ways. First, a 9% royalty has to be paid on the market value of any oil.

Second, corporation tax is payable on the profits from exploration and extraction. It is 26%. Despite the British government’s large expenditure on maintaining a military base at Mount Pleasant near Stanley, its exchequer is not entitled to any of the proceeds from Falklands oil. If oil prices remain over $100 a barrel, and hundreds of millions of barrels are extracted, that’s a huge windfall for a community of only 3,000.

The government is looking at setting up a sovereign wealth fund, as Norway, a country with a small population but huge mineral wealth, has done to great effect.

The Argentinians claim the proceeds should be theirs, and it is the growing probability that the Falklands will yield commercial quantities of oil that is behind the increase in political rhetoric in recent weeks.

Stephen Luxton, director of mineral resources for the Falkland Islands, said it was “highly unlikely there would be any kind of sharing arrangement with them”.

Rockhopper said it will start commercial production in 2016. It plans to develop its Sea Lion field with a giant oil tanker moored over it. The ship will be fitted with a drilling rig and have capacity to store 2m to 3m barrels of oil, which would then be offloaded to other tankers.

Most of the oil jobs, in other words, will stay offshore. Only a few dozen oil workers are expected to be ashore at the peak of operations.

However, the wider onshore community is hoping for a windfall. Roger Spink, the president of the islands’ chamber of commerce, said: “The opportunities [provided by the oil industry] are enormous for all sorts of businesses, from transport companies to guest houses, the retail sector and logistics. There will be jobs all over the place.”

Although the Falklands cover an area about two-thirds the size of Wales, most people live in Stanley. Last week, Rockhopper launched a social impact study, using consultants from Plexus Energy. An appeal for views was launched through an advertisement in the Penguin, the local newspaper. The firm wants to help residents to “mitigate negative impacts” of its arrival, and “enhance and maximise” the benefits.

Kyle Biggs runs Endurance Tours, and takes tourists to battlefield sites, penguin colonies and other attractions on the islands. “I think there will be a big surge in tourism if we get an oil boom,” he said. “It will raise the profile of the Falklands, attract more people, and thus get better facilities for the tourists.”

Julie Halliday owns Studio 52, a graphic design, photography and clothing business based in a pretty white cabin on the shore at Stanley.

“When workers come off the oil rigs and spend a few days in town, they tend to want something to remind them of where they have been,” she said. “I think they tend to earn pretty good money, and it would be good if they come and spend some of it in my shop. I’d like a piece of that,” she added, laughing.

Spink conceded that the islanders had been disappointed before. Several companies, including Shell, explored the North Falklands Basin 14 years ago but didn’t come up with anything viable.

Other oil explorers have found inspiration in Rockhopper’s success. Two companies — Falkland Oil and Gas and Borders and Southern — have raised tens of millions to explore an area south of the islands (Rockhopper is in the north). Argos Resources, another London listed firm, has plans to drill wells on a separate block in the northern basin. Their chances of success are remote.

Oil isn’t the only industry on the island that faces uncertainty. Squid fishing accounts for 75% of exports and more than half of GDP. There are two main sort of squid: the smaller loligo, and the larger — and locals say less tasty — illex.

The illex spawns off the coast of Argentina, and then moves into international waters as it matures. This season the Argentine government told its fishermen to begin the catch earlier than normal on December 1, potentially reducing the number of mature squid that can be caught by Falklands vessels.

The 55-metre factory trawler John Cheek, crewed by 35, was moored at the jetty in Stanley harbour. On its deck, managing director Stuart Wallis was angry. He said the Argentinians were irresponsible. “They are trying various manoeuvres to stop the mature fish reaching our zone.”

One side-effect of the Falklands dispute is the lack of an international fisheries agreement in the southwest Atlantic. This has led to overfishing on a huge scale. For example, the southern blue whiting, once one of the most abundant fish there, is now commercially extinct. As for the illex squid, the government used to bank on £16m in licence fees every year from it. Now it expects nothing.

John Barton, director of natural resources for the Falkland Islands, said: “We used to have really quite good relations with Argentina on fisheries conservation for the 15 years after the conflict. We did joint research. So it’s rather depressing now that, 30 years after the conflict, we don’t have those relations.”

He doesn’t blame Argentina alone for overfishing, but adds “having some sort of bilateral or multilateral measures to enable conservation measures to be put in place would be very helpful.”

Fishing isn’t the only arena in which the Argentinians are putting economic pressure on the Falklands. The islands used to have a container ship link to Uruguay and Chile. But that was lost. Islanders blame Argentine pressure on their South American neighbours. A new link has been opened to Brazil, but some business figures in the Falklands want this kept quiet, lest the Argentinians put paid to that too. There’s only one scheduled flight a week, to Punta Arenas in Chile.

With all this uncertainty, the islands are trying to diversify their economy. There are 500,000 sheep on the Falklands, traditionally almost all used for their wool. But the wool price fluctuates wildly, leaving farmers nervous.

So, the abattoir a few miles outside Stanley has had a refit, and improved quality control and mechanisation now means thousands more Falklands lambs are eaten in European restaurants. Farmers increasingly have another option to wool, said its boss, John Ferguson.

There are also plans for a new waterfront at Stanley, so the 50,000 passengers who disembark from the cruise ships every year have a better experience. The government is working on a new air charter link direct to Miami so the Falklands can be the start and end of many cruise journeys, which would be good for hotels, restaurants and taxis.

It’s expensive to get many goods, especially fresh produce, in the islands. Single items of fruit and vegetables often cost more than £1. Half a pineapple can cost £6.

Other aspects of the cost of living are also expensive. The islands have no fibre-optic cable. Broadband is via satellite, which costs many households an eye-watering £150 a month.

However, despite the rising cost of living and the political tensions, the mood is upbeat. At 0.5% at the last count, the Falklands have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. The 15 and 16 year olds who go away to Britain to do A-levels and go to university tend to come back after their studies.

The oil industry is widely welcomed. Even the environmental lobby on the islands is positive. James Fenton, chief executive of Falklands Conservation, said that to remain economically viable “the islands need to keep as much income as possible from as many sources as possible. The oil development is going ahead regardless of whether it is environmentally good or bad”.

However, despite that sense of inevitability, he felt that because the prevailing winds around the Falklands tend to blow from the southwest, the risk of disaster was low. “The current exploration is taking place in areas that are probably the least environmentally sensitive in terms of potential spills.”

This weekend another exploration rig, the self-powered Leif Erikson, arrives. Falkland Oil and Gas and Borders and Southern will use it this time in the South Falkland Basin. Parts of the area have been seismically mapped but it is nonetheless a shot in the dark.

Even if Rockhopper’s find ends up being the first and last discovery off the Falklands, the 3,000 people in this tight-knit community could soon become rich beyond their wildest dreams.