Ireland Operations

OFFSHORE EAST IRELAND – KISH BANK

Licence Option No 08/2

KISH BASIN (50% interest)

In August 2008, Providence and Star Energy, (a subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian National Oil Company) were awarded a three-year Licence Option over eight blocks in the Kish Bank Basin. The agreed work programme will focus on the oil and gas exploration potential of the basin while the ULYSSES Project will specifically assess the potential for underground saline reservoirs in the Kish Bank Basin to be used as sites for CO₂ sequestration as well as natural gas storage.

It is particularly exciting for Providence given its proximity to the city of Dublin, with its large carbon footprint.

‘ULYSSES’ PROJECT – KISH BASIN

This is a study to evaluate the carbon sequestration and natural gas storage potential of the Kish Bank Basin, offshore Ireland. The Undersea Large-scale Saline Sequestration and Enhanced Storage (or ULYSSES) project has been designed to assess the potential use of Triassic-aged saline sandstone reservoir sequences as possible sites for carbon sequestration. The presence of saline reservoirs which are located c.1.5 km below the seabed together with overlying sealing shale has been demonstrated in a number of oil and gas exploration wells which have been drilled in the Kish Bank Basin over the past c.30 years. The project area is located approximately 20 km offshore Dublin. The recent intergovernmental report ‘Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO₂ for the Island of Ireland’ indicated that the Kish Bank Basin held c. 270 Mt of CO₂ effective storage capacity.

The study is being carried out on a 50/50 joint venture basis with Star Energy Group plc (‘Star Energy’), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian National Oil Company. Star Energy is a leading UK gas storage company, with gas storage developments both onshore and offshore United Kingdom and Western Europe.

Ireland’s only gas storage facility is at the SW Kinsale Head field, offshore Cork. This facility, which has been operational since 2001, has an estimated storage capacity of 5-7 BSCF. The latest Irish Governmental Green Paper on Energy recommends that Ireland should have at least 3 months of reserve/storage capacity which equates to c. 45 BSCF. In this regard, Providence and Star are also planning to evaluate other saline offshore reservoirs in terms of their conventional natural gas storage potential.