ExxonMobil ‘not leaving Irish waters'

Oil giant ExxonMobil has said it has no intention of pulling out of Irish waters, despite disappointing early drilling results from the highly-anticipated Dunquin prospect off the Kerry coast — in which it is a senior partner — last month.

The recent findings of the ‘Dunquin North’ exploration well being mainly water-based and having no commercially recoverable hydrocarbons, leading to its abandonment, dented the share price of the asset’s Irish stakeholder, Providence Resources, and led to speculation that Exxon was finished with Ireland.

However, a spokesperson for Exxon said, yesterday, that this is “certainly not the case” and the Texas-headquartered company — the world’s largest oil firm — remains a major partner in its two Irish interests in the Porcupine Basin, namely Dunquin and the Cuchulainn field.

However, they did add that Exxon currently has no plans for further drilling in Irish waters and would not be speculating on its future plans, at this time.

Exxon currently owns a 36% stake in the Cuchulainn field and a 25.5% holding in Dunquin, where it is also listed as operator. Other shareholders at Dunquin include Italian energy giant, Eni; Spanish company, Repsol; Ireland’s Providence with a 16% stake and London-based explorer, Sosina with a 4% holding.

Exxon’s spokesperson said there remains “a lot of work still involved” with the Dunquin project — including interpreting the huge amount of data from the well results and licence reports, which will be undertaken by the joint partners in the coming months.

Providence’s chief executive, Tony O’Reilly, recently said that the hard data from Dunquin North has already demonstrated that all of the key components of a working petroleum system exist in the southern Porcupine Basin and that the Dunquin dream remains alive and well. Last week, as expected, the Eirik Raude rig departed Irish waters after the end of its activities off the west coast.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil’s latest quarterly results — issued at the tail-end of last week — saw the company post its smallest profit for nearly three years, with the knock-on dent to shares lowering the oil giant’s market cap by $9bn to $408bn. While it met its quarterly revenue targets, net second quarter profit fell from just under $16bn to $6.9bn.