Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Perth, has taken out three farm-in options for offshore acreage offshore Ireland.
The company has taken majority stakes in three permits: 85% in two permits licenced to Petrel Resources PLC and 90% in one permit licenced to Bluestack Energy Ltd.
All three permits lie in the Porcupine basin off western Ireland.
The Petrel blocks cover a total of 14,000 sq km with PL 11/4 in the basin’s north and PL 11/6 in the east near shore.
Meanwhile, Bluestack’s PL licence 11/3 covers 1,271 sq km 100 km west of County Kerry. Water depths range 400-1,000 m. In 1997, Marathon made a natural gas discovery with its 35/30-1 well using the Jack Bates jack up rig. The company encountered a 200-ft gross gas column in Mid-upper Jurassic reservoir. The company estimated gas-in-place reserves of 5 tcf.
Bluestack has mapped a separate stratigraphic deepwater fan complex in the block that it has named the Ventry prospect and declares has potential to hold 8 tcf of gas in place.
Woodside will conduct preliminary exploration seismic in all three permits as part of its interest-earning program.
