Providence Resources today confirmed it had been given the nod for its exploration well off the coast of Ireland.
The firm and its joint venture partner, Sosina Exploration Limited, are targeting a prospect in the southern Porcupine Basin and is located about 220 kilometres off the south west coast of Ireland.
Providence owns an 80% operator stake in the well, which is located in the Druid prospect.
The Druid prospect has a cumulative in-place un-risked prospective resources of 3.180 billion barrel of oil (BBO). Pre-stack seismic inversion and regional rock physics analysis shows Druid is consistent with a highly porous (30%) and high net-gross, light oil-filled sandstone reservoir system up to 85 metres thick.
A company spokesperson said: “The Minister of State for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has given his consent to the progression to the second phase of the licence, subject to the completion of the agreed work programme which includes the drilling of the 53/6-A exploration well on the Paleocene Druid prospect and the subsequent integration of the well data into a comprehensive assessment of the petroleum potential of the licence.”
Providence has contracted in the Stena IceMAX drill-ship to drill the exploration well in summer 2017.
Chief executive Tony O’Reilly said: “We are pleased to have received this confirmation from the government on the licence progression as we continue to move forward with all the necessary works to enable the drilling of this high impact exploration well during summer 2017.”