Premier Oil, Falkland Oil and Rockhopper find oil and gas in Falklands project

The FTSE 250 group, which owns 36% of the well, said it discovered 81 feet of net-oil net reservoir and 55 feet of net gas-bearing reservoir from the Zebedee well, in which Falkland Oil and Gas and Rockhopper Exploration hold a 40% and 25% stake respectively.

The Zebedee well, which will now be plugged and abandoned as a successful exploration well, is on License PL004b, and the oil firms said all seven reservoir targets at the well were encountered and three of the targets were oil bearing.

"The discoveries will add further resource to future phases of development in the area,” said Premier Oil exploration director Andrew Lodge.

“We now look forward to the results of the upcoming Isobel Deep well, potentially the highest impact well in this campaign."

Test data showed that a total of 18.5 metres of net gas pay and 27.9 metres of net oil pay were encountered in the well.

The Hector sand, one of the three targets that were oil bearing showed a net gas pay of 18.5 metres and initial indication showed "good reservoir properties" and while no oil was found, the three companies said that the reservoir could be oil bearing further down.

"In addition to the new discoveries at Zebedee and Hector, we have good oil shows throughout the deeper F3 section which is encouraging should better quality reservoir be encountered in this section elsewhere in the basin," said Samuel Moody, chief executive of Rockhopper.

As of 10:15 on Thursday, Premier Oil shares were up 3.66% to 138.49p, while Rockhopper Exploration shares were up 1.61% to 64.78p and shares in Falkland Oil and Gas were down 7.43% to 32.86p.