PROVIDENCE Resources claims that it has identified a large structure off the east coast of Ireland that could harbour hundreds of millions of barrels of oil.
However, despite at least one report suggesting that the company “identified oil shows” during drilling operations, in fact, the Dalkey Island prospect has never been drilled. In a teaser note issued early-April, the company says that previous exploration drilling in the Kish Bank Basin confirmed the potential for petroleum generation “with oil shows seen in a number of wells together with natural hydrocarbon seeps recorded from airborne surveys”. The 870million barrels potential structure has been identified by carrying out fresh analysis of “vintage” 2D seismic data.
“This has revealed the presence of a large undrilled structural closure at Lower Triassic level situated some 10km offshore Dublin,” says Providence.
“This feature, known as the Dalkey Island exploration prospect, may be prospective for oil as there are prolific oil-productive Lower Triassic reservoirs nearby in the eastern Irish Sea offshore Liverpool.
“While the Dalkey Island exploration prospect could contain circa 870million barrels of oil in place, this undrilled prospect still has significant risk and the partners are currently advancing a focused work programme in order to better understand and, hopefully, mitigate these risks.
“However, given its location in shallow water and close proximity to shore, the prospect is of great interest as exploration drilling, together with any future development costs, is likely to be low.”
Providence is operator of licence option 08/2 with 50% interest, in partnership with Star Energy, a subsidiary of Malaysian national oil company Petronas. No indication is given of timescale or whether a farm-down would be contemplated before drilling to reduce the financial risk.