The government of the Falkland Islands has approved a two-year extension to Borders & Southern Petroleum’s three offshore production licenses, PL018, PL019, PL020, including the Darwin discovery area.
All will now expire on Dec. 31, 2026.
"Our prime focus continues to be the monetization of the Darwin gas-condensate discovery that contains 462 MMbbl of recoverable liquids plus material upside in adjacent structures by identifying a suitable partner to appraise it," CEO Harry Baker said. "The license extensions will allow us to continue our search for a partner and move the Darwin discovery forward by either testing Darwin East or drilling another target. We continue to be encouraged by progress on the relaunched farm-out process where we are working with a large global adviser…”
Darwin is in 2,000 m of water, south of the Falkland Islands, and at a subsurface depth of 2.6 km. It comprises two adjacent tilted fault blocks, Darwin East (where the discovery well was drilled in 2012) and Darwin West.
Borders & Southern has considered multiple scenarios, including a full development of Darwin East and Darwin West or a phased development.
Engineering studies suggest that pending successful appraisal, a commercial solution could involve an FPSO development using established, off-the-shelf technology. The liquids would be produced with the dry gas reinjected back into the reservoir.