Falkland Oil ups pace after raising £48m - Business - Evening Standard
       

Falkland Oil ups pace after raising £48m

Falkland Oil and Gas today received a boost in its quest to discover and extract vast quantities of oil around the Falkland Islands after raising £48.5 million through a share placing.

The company will use the cash to step up operations in the Falklands by drilling deeper into its first exploratory well off the South Atlantic islands and opening up a second well.

It is trying to replicate the success of Rockhopper Exploration, which is riding high after discovering 400 million barrels of recoverable oil to the north of the islands.

However, it is not all plain sailing. Although Rockhopper can now lay claim to significant oil resources in the area, it had a few disappointments along the way while Desire Petroleum, the Falklands-focused explorer, has seen its shares lose about four-fifths of their value in the past 18 months as it has repeatedly failed to find oil in the area.

Meanwhile, a cloud hangs over the future of exploration around the islands as the longstanding dispute over their sovereignty flares up again.

Argentina is leading a group of South American countries in banning ships flying the Falklands flag from their ports, in a move that could significant impede explorers ability to produce oil in the region.

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