Ireland: Providence to drill Kish Bank basin oil prospect

Providence Resources PLC and the Star Energy Group PLC subsidiary of Malaysia’s state Petronas plan to drill an exploratory well in the Kish Bank basin off eastern Ireland and have applied to convert the LO 08/2 license to a standard exploration license.

Alan Petzet

Sept. 22, 2011

The Dalkey Island prospect is in 25 m of water 10 km off Dublin. Providence recently commissioned a third party geochemical study on residual oil samples from a nearby well that confirmed the presence of a highly mature Paleozoic marine oil prone source rock in the Kish Bank basin. Drilling depth is 1,700 m.

Considerable exploratory risk remains, but the geochemical studies “provided significant encouragement as a similar interval is considered to be the source for the prolific producing oilfields in the Liverpool Bay Area, offshore UK,” said Providence.

About the Author

Alan Petzet

Chief Editor Exploration

Alan Petzet is Chief Editor-Exploration of Oil & Gas Journal in Houston. He is editor of the Weekly E&D Newsletter, emailed to OGJ subscribers, and a regular contributor to the OGJ Online subscriber website.

Petzet joined OGJ in 1981 after 13 years in the Tulsa World business-oil department. He was named OGJ Exploration Editor in 1990. A native of Tulsa, he has a BA in journalism from the University of Tulsa.