100,000 barrels a day at Cork site

The Barryroe oil field off Co Cork could produce up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day, or a total of 280m barrels of recoverable oil over a 25-year lifespan.

Irish exploration company Providence Resources — which owns an 80% stake in the field — yesterday updated estimates for the asset, which is Ireland’s most significant oil find to date. The figures follow findings that Barryroe probably holds up to 1.8bn barrels in total and is four times bigger than initially thought.

Yesterday, the company said an average recovery rate of 27% of the estimated full oil-in-place figure would be better than expected and would rank Barryroe alongside some of the big finds in the North Sea. Chief executive Tony O’Reilly Jr said oil discoveries off the Irish coast such as Barryroe could benefit Ireland in much the same way as North Sea finds have Britain. Previous estimates suggested that about 16% of oil at Barryroe could be recoverable as part of a cost-effective drilling round.

Providence is still targeting a first production date of 2015 for Barryroe, but final declaration of commerciality is still dependent on receipt of various permits and finding a development partner.

The company is looking towards saving a significant amount of the developmental costs by finding a new farm-in partner, which would lower Providence’s stake to about 40% and give the new partner a similar holding. Currently, Lansdowne Oil & Gas controls the other 20% of Barryroe.

Speaking yesterday, Mr O’Reilly said there has been initial interest in Barryroe from prospective partners, but would not be drawn on the significance of recent reported visits to China by Providence’s management.

He did say, however, that management is still looking towards a timeframe of the end of this year or early next year for a partner to be unveiled, and that other partnerships and collaborations with the likes of Exxon, Repsol, Eni, and Petronas have proved that Providence has a good track record for working with the world’s big oil companies.

In hailing Barryroe as the beginning of an Irish oil industry, Mr O’Reilly rejected suggestions that Ireland might not fully benefit from such finds, with recovered oil possibly being refined outside of the country. He said that Providence and its partners fully intend to refine Barryroe’s oil in Cork, adding it would be “mad” to take it elsewhere.