Offshore staff
DUBLIN, Ireland – Providence Resources has issued an update on prospectivity in Irish Licensing Option 11/12 (LO 11/12).
The concession is 70 km offshore Ireland’s west coast, in 300 m (984 ft) water depth. It was awarded under Ireland’s 2011 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round to Providence as operator, in partnership with First Oil Expro.
Initial evaluation has unearthed the Kylemore and Shannon prospects, both of similar age to Shell’s nearby 1-tcf Corrib gas field.
Kylemore is 20 km (12.4 mi) southwest of Corrib and is interpreted as a mid-basinal inverted four way dip-closed anticline, based on 2D and 3D seismic data. It appears to be structurally directly analogous to Corrib, with potential in-place gas of up to 228 bcf.
Shannon, which is fully covered by 3D seismic, is 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of Corrib. Enterprise Oil (since acquired by Shell) drilled the 18/25-2 exploration well on the Shannon prospect in 1999, but did not encounter the Corrib reservoir.
Subsequently, Enterprise interpreted the reservoir to be faulted out at the well location. Enterprise’s pre-drill map suggests a structural closure extending over 23 sq km (Corrib covers 15 sq km, or 5.8 sq mi), and Providence therefore believes that Shannon warrants a comprehensive re-evaluation.
John O’Sullivan, Technical Director at Providence, said: “We plan to apply modern seismic processing technologies to the available 3D seismic data in order to better quantify any remaining resource potential in the area.”
4/19/2012
