Irish based exploration firm Providence Resources is to undertake 3D seismic ahead of a possible wildcat well in the southern Porcupine basin.
The company wants to acquire more detailed data about Frontier Exploration Licence 3/04, which is situated in around 1,500 metres of water and is about 200 km off the
south-west coast of Ireland.
The licence is operated by Eni Ireland BV (36.913%) on behalf of its joint venture partners Repsol Exploracion Irlanda SA (33.557%), Providence Resources P.l.c. (26.846%) and Sosina Exploration Limited (2.684%).
The JV Partners have agreed to underwrite and licence 1,800 km2 of new multi-client 3D seismic data over FEL 3/04.
The survey vessel the CGG Oceanic Caspian, which will conduct this data acquisition programme, is expected to commence mobilize imminently.
In a statement, Providence said the main objective of this new 3D seismic survey is to understand the hydrocarbon potential of the undrilled Lower Cretaceous Dunquin South carbonate exploration prospect.
The statement added: “In addition, it is hoped that these new data may shed further light on the 2013 ExxonMobil-operated 44/23-1 exploration well, that was drilled on the adjacent (c.20 km) Dunquin North carbonate prospect and which encountered a large residual oil column in a massive highly porous over-pressured carbonate reservoir system.
“A further objective for the new survey is to assess the nature and hydrocarbon potential of the c. 700 km2 Dunquin Ridge which underlies both Dunquin carbonate build-ups and which was not penetrated by the previous well.”
Dr John O’Sullivan, technical director of Providence added: “We hope that the results of this survey will improve our understanding of the acreage and lead to further drilling in the future.”