Companies: BLT    FKL    FOGL   

Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) expects drilling on its prospects to start next year after losing an interim £1.1 million.

The AIM-quoted company ended the six months to June still with £11.3 million in the bank after its losses nearly doubled from the £631,545 deficit in the first half of 2007. Chairman Richard Liddell says FOGL and its partner, mining giant BHP Billiton, are focusing on preparatory work for a drilling programme seen as starting in the second half of 2009 on the companies’ prospects offshore of the Falkland Islands.

He suggests one prospect likely to be tested in the initial drilling programme will be Loligo, which FOGL estimates to hold ‘un-risked’ reserves of 3.5 billion barrels of oil. An eventual success there would have a ‘significant impact’ on FOGL at 102.5p and on one of its major shareholders, fellow AIM counter Falkland Islands Holdings at 345p.

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