Desire PR company refutes today's Times story

Posters on bulletin board iii.co.uk are posting that, Buchanan, Desire Petroleum's PR company have stated that an RNS will be issued tomorrow morning at 7am before the market opens to clarify the situation following the Times story today which said that oil had been found but not in commercial quantities. Buchanan have reportedly said that testing is ongoing and there has been no final data to confirm the commerciality of the Falklands Liz drilling prospect. Lots of rumours which hopefully will be put to bed by an official statement tomorrow.

As  a follow up, Reuters have just confirmed the iii reports that an RNS will issued at 7am tomorrow - "A spokesman for Desire said on Sunday that tests were ongoing, and the company would issue a statement on Monday morning clarifying the situation to shareholders." (http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE62R0WD20100328)

Times publishes story that Desire Petroleum's well is non-commercial

According to today's Times , The first well drilled off the Falkland Islands in 12 years has struck oil — but not enough to be commercially viable. Furthermore, "Desire is expected to say that the well drilled at its Liz prospect was “technically successful”, meaning it found oil, but that it is “non-commercial”, meaning that there was not enough oil to justify developing the field. The company declined to comment. Sources close to the situation said it had not finished drilling, but the signs were not encouraging. A source said: “It’s not a duster [a dry well], but it’s not commercially successful.” Desire has been working on the well for the past month.

Given this news is based on unofficial sources and the company has not commented it would be surprising if an RNS is not released tomorrow morning to clarify the situation as Desire Petroleum's share price (and the other Falkland drillers) will fall substantially on these rumours given they are published in a relatively reputable source of the Times newspaper. If true, very bad news for my Falkland's oil portfolio - I guess you win some, lose some!!

Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7078788.ece)