Premier Oil (LON:PMO) and Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) have revealed that the oil drilling campaign in the Falklands will be cut short.
The contract for the Eirik Raude drill rig has been cancelled with immediate effect following a number of material operational issues with the rig, Premier Oil said in a stock market statement.
Consequently, the planned Chatham well will no longer be drilled in the current programme.
It closes off a multi-well programme which, rig issues aside, could be seen as a success for the explorers in the North Falkland basin.
Chatham was planned as an appraisal of a possible extension of the Sea Lion field, which Premier plans to bring online by 2019.
Rockhopper told investors that the postponement of the Chatham well has no impact on the timetable for the initial phase of the Sea Lion field development.
Sam Moody, Rockhopper chief executive, said: “Whilst it is a shame not to be able to drill Chatham as part of this campaign the resources added at the Zebedee location, along with the potentially very significant discoveries in the Isobel/Elaine area, mean that from a sub-surface perspective this has been a hugely successful campaign."
Rockhopper added that according to preliminary estimates it now expects to have between US$70-80mln of cash by the end of 2016 (as of December 2015 it had $110mln).