Providence Resources and Sosina have resecured the deepwater Drombeg (licence 11/9) far to the south-west of Ireland in the Southern Porcupine Basin.
Drombeg lies in some 2,500m of water and the prospective L. Cretaceous geology is located around 3,000m beneath the sea floor. The P50 recoverable reserves estimate is 872million barrels oil equivalent while the overall hydrocarbons in place is thought to be nearly 3billion boe.
The prospect is some 70km from Dunquin, which was drilled unsuccessfully last year by Exxon, though traces of a residual oil column were encountered.
The core of the forward work programme is the acquisition of a 500sq.km 3D seismic survey over the prospect, with survey planning having already begun.
Providence said: “The results of the nearby Dunquin North well confirmed our oil-prone model for the area with the overpressure encountered in that well mitigating top-seal risk at Drombeg. In contrast with the Dunquin North target however, our existing 2D seismic data indicate that active hydrocarbon migration into Drombeg is occurring to the present day.”
The company’s mapping to date shows that the geological anomaly identified as Drombeg is aerially extensive covering around 240sq.km, with a possible hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone interval of 65-100m thickness.
It is interpreted to be the deep-water equivalent of L. Cretaceous Apto-Albian aged shallow water marine sandstones encountered in the BP-operated 43/13-1 well, drilled in 1988.
That well, which is located some 80km from Drombeg, encountered around 22m (70ft) of net Apto-Albian sandstone with an average porosity of about 19%. Other than Dunquin-1, it is the only well ever drilled in the South Porcupine.