Providence to sell stakes in assets

PROVIDENCE Resources is likely to sell further equity stakes in its Irish-based assets, as it progresses with its two-year €350 million drilling programme off the country’s coastline.

Shareholders attending the exploration company’s annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday heard that interest has been expressed in the Rathlin Island oil licence, which Providence owns outright and is due to drill on next year. The company’s chief executive, Tony O’Reilly Jnr, said that stakes in other assets — Providence is due to drill across six basins off the Irish and British coasts across the remainder of this year and 2012 — could be sold to develop further strategic partnerships.

This could even include the company’s Barryroe discovery off the Cork coast in the Celtic Sea. Drilling on that asset — which is 50% owned by Providence, with the remainder owned by San Leon Energy and Lansdowne Oil & Gas — is due to kick-off the drilling campaign in September.