Ireland's Providence Oil has upgraded the scale of it's offshore discoveries.
The Ballyroe rig in operation Image: Finbarr O'Rourke/Providence |
After announcing the first oil strike in waters off the coast of Ireland earlier this year, Providence has spent the intervening months running static and dynamic models of the reserves. The result of the calculations is, according to Providence boss, Tony O'Reilly, an oilfield which could be as important for Ireland as the North Sea fields are for the UK.
The reserve in the Barryroe Field is now estimated at around 280m barrels of accessible oil - around 16% of the 1-1.6bn barrel total reserve. According to the company, the average recovery rate from the field is currently running at 27% - higher than original expectations.
Overall recovery rates vary from 17% to 43% across the whole field, but the main reservoir - known as Basal Wealden - will be run at 31% using 41 production platfroms with an additional 22 water-injection wells being run as part of the recovery operation.
Now, Providence requires a partner with the technical resources capable of production this scale. According to reports, Providence is already in discussions with a number of potential oil majors and is looking for a €1bn ($1.3bn) investment from its new partner.