DREAMS of vast oil reserves off the Falkland Islands have been dented for a company based at Mathon, near Malvern, after initial drilling yielded poor results.
Shares in Desire Petroleum, listed on the Alternative Investment Market, plummeted 50 per cent in one day after the firm announced the small amounts of oil it had found were of poor quality.
The results signify a major setback for the company as it had hoped to capitalise on a predicted 60 billion barrels of oil underneath the British Overseas Territory – an amount that would rivalNorth Sea reserves.
Drilling began in February amid an international rowbetween the UK and Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands.
There still remains the possibility that significant reserves of oil will be found at deeper depths and in five further wells around the islands.
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