Ireland Operations

IRISH SEA

Standard Exploration Licence 2/11

DALKEY ISLAND (50%, Operator)

The Dalkey Island prospect is a shallow water (c. 20-30m) hydrocarbon target in the Kish Bank Basin, which lies just c. 10km offshore Dublin. Geologically, the Kish Bank Basin is akin to the prolific East Irish Sea Basin, which produces large volumes of oil and gas offshore Liverpool Bay.

Four wells drilled to date in the basin have proven the presence of excellent quality Sherwood Sandstone reservoir, Mercia Mudstone caprock as well as gas prone Upper Carboniferous source rocks. In addition, oil shows in two of the four wells together with published airborne seep detection data suggests the presence of a further oil prone source rock. The Dalkey Island prospect is a Lower Triassic tilted fault block structure where seismic inversion analysis has revealed the presence of hydrocarbon indicators. Similarly aged oil productive reservoirs have been discovered in the Liverpool Bay area of the East Irish Sea Basin, offshore UK. Oil source rock has now been identified in the basin and the Company has started planning operations, including a foreshore licence application as well as  discussions with rig operators to source a suitable unit for the drilling of a well in the first half of 2012.

‘ULYSSES’ PROJECT (100%, Operator)

The Undersea Large-scale Saline Sequestration and Enhanced Storage (or ULYSSES) project was designed of the Kish Bank Basin for carbon sequestration and natural gas storage. The project area is located approximately 20 km offshore Dublin and 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. The 2008 joint British and Irish 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 initial phase of a Providence sanctioned study, carried out by AMEC plc, which included planning, capacity modelling, infrastructural integration and gas sourcing, confirmed that the construction of an offshore natural gas salt cavern storage facility at the ULYSSES location is both economically and technically feasible. A number of scenarios have been developed which have an associated range in capacity, off-take export rates and capital expenditure. Detailed technical data relating to the subsurface geology, which will be acquired through the drilling of the Dalkey Island exploration prospect, will also assist with the advancement of this project.

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.