Offshore staff
DUBLIN, Ireland – Providence Resources (LON:PVR) has provided a technical update on its Rathlin basin acreage offshore and onshore Northern Ireland.
The company has a 100% interest in six offshore blocks in license P1885, awarded under theUK’s 26th seaward licensing round in 2011, and an onshore license (PL5/10), covering the island of Rathlin.
Providence’s subsurface team has evaluated existing 2D seismic, shallow and deep wellbore and outcrop geological data. They have identified conventional hydrocarbon prospectivity within the Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group reservoir interval, which is also productive for hydrocarbons in the nearby East Irish Sea basin offshore Liverpool, northwest England.
Further vertically stacked potential has been identified within the deeper Carboniferous section where sandstones have been recorded in onshore outcrops with porosities of up to 29%.
To date, one deep hydrocarbon exploration well has been drilled in the basin, the onshore Ballinlea-1, with good-quality oil samples recovered to the surface for analysis.
Providence has acquired a recently completed full tensor gradiometry (FTG) and magnetic airborne survey that Bell Geospace conducted over its blocks. It says that drilling of anomalies identified using this technology has been successful elsewhere in frontier hydrocarbon exploration.
Initial evaluation of these data has pinpointed five large anomalies on Providence’s acreage. One is structurally on-trend with and just 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Ballinlea-1 well.
The company will integrate the FTG dataset with existing 2D seismic and onshore stratigraphy to high-grade the prospectivity of these anomalies and it will reprocess the existing 2D data to progress well planning.
A screening review is under way of potential drilling locations with options to drill from both offshore and onshore sites.
9/20/2012
