Offshore staff
DUBLIN, Ireland – Providence Resources looks to drill two further exploration wells off southern and eastern Ireland this year, following its recently completed Barryroe appraisal well in the Celtic Sea.
One will be an appraisal of theDragon field in the St. George’s Channel basin between Ireland and west Wales.
Marathon Oil drilled the 103/1-1 discovery well in 1994, which flowed around 22 MMcf/d of gas and 120 b/d of oil from Upper Jurassic sands.
The structure extends from block 103/1 on the UK side into Irish waters in Standard Exploration License (SEL) 1/07.
Providence was awarded block 103/1 early this year by the UK government, via its PR Singleton subsidiary, in partnership with Star Energy Oil & Gas.
IKON Geoscience recently performed a new study that involved modeling of historical well and seismic data using techniques including inverted seismic data.
Revised mapping suggests the field may extend further into Irish territorial waters than had been previously been mapped, with a larger potential resource base of up to 300 bcf and a 75:25 resource split between Ireland and the UK.
Additional reprocessing of the 3D seismic is under way as part of planning preparations for an appraisal well to be drilled in late 2012. Providence is also conducting a farm-out campaign on the St. George’s Channel area.
Northwest of Dragon the company says its 100%-owned Pegasus gas exploration prospect could hold around 300 bcf.
Directly beneath Dragon is Orpheus, a potential 290-bcf gas exploration prospect, which would be drilled as part of any appraisal program of the Dragon field.
Offshore Dublin, Providence has a 50% operated interest in a license in the Kish basin. In 2010, the company identified the Lower Triassic Dalkey Island prospect as a significant undrilled prospect, with prospective oil resources of around 870 MMbbl.
Oil-productive reservoirs of a similar age are under development to the east in the Liverpool Bay area of the East Irish Sea, off northwest England. Providence has started planning operations, including a foreshore license application, for drilling of a well later this year.
5/14/2012
