Companies: DES   

Entitled 'second best source rock in the world in North Falkland Basin', the British Geological Survey conference provided a fillip to flagging oil explorer Desire. The news seems to have been refracted through the prism of internet chat rooms. Shares more than trebled to 69p, before subsiding to 55p. Desire, which recently merged with gas explorer Gaelic Resources, is considered one of the major players in the Falklands, holding licences for 100% of Tranches C, D, I and L, and 12.5% of Tranche F, of which fellow Aim explorer, Sodra, is the operator. Though a number of wells were drilled last year, Desire had abandoned further development because of the low oil prices combined with finds which were not commercially viable. This sentiment prevailed last year, though the recent news seems likely to reverse this. Indeed the BGS was so upbeat, that it predicted that the source rock in the Falklands 'has possibly generated up to eleven billion barrels of oil'. Even the most conservative estimate of one billion barrels compares favourably to the 200m barrels necessary to make an oilfield viable. Westmount, which holds a 13.5% stake in Desire, saw its shares rise a more modest 40% to 34.5p.