Irish explorer Providence Resources and partner Star Energy – now part of Malaysia’s Petronas – have been offered a three-year licensing option offshore Dublin.
Together the two companies have been offered options on eight blocks in the Kish Bank basin area by Ireland’s Department of Energy, Communications & Natural Resources and Providence will act as operator.
The Kish Bank is about 20 km (12 miles) offshore Dublin in the Irish Sea and a paper published by the Geological Society of London indicates good hydrocarbon potential in the basin.
“The main reservoir in the hydrocarbon play is provided by the Sherwood Sandstone Group, as successfully exploited in the East Irish Sea,” says the paper, by Dunsford, Dancer and Long, published in 2001. “Three wells have been drilled to test this reservoir. These encountered high-quality Sherwood Sandstone reservoirs beneath the good potential seal of the Mercia Mudstone group.”