Irish oil explorer Providence Resources said today it could have more than one billion barrels of oil in place in its Barryroe field offshore Ireland.
The AIM-listed firm carried out appraisal drilling on the field, about 30 miles off the south coast of Ireland, earlier this year.
It said information from this well, twinned with data from five other wells drilled on the field and seismic data, had led to an estimate of a total of 1.04billion barrels of proved-plus-probable oil in place in two areas of the field.
Lansdowne Oil and Gas – 24.68% owned by Westhill-based Seaenergy – has a 20% stake in Barryroe, with the rest held by Providence.
Shares in Providence rose by 3% this morning to 675p. Shares in Providence have been rising since October 2011 when they were at a 52-week low of 152p.
Tony O’Reilly, chief executive of Providence, said: “We are delighted to be in a position to provide such a significant increase in the Barryroe oil-in-place resources.
“The subsurface mapping and geological modelling results have confirmed that the Barryroe structure covers a very large area, and comprises four distinct hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir zones.
“It is clear from these studies that Barryroe is a substantial oil accumulation across multiple stacked horizons with much running room for further resource growth.”