Sites off west coast have potential to produce 2bn barrels

Two companies have identified oil targets off the west coast, with the combined potential to produce nearly two billion barrels of oil.

The John Teeling-chaired Petrel Resources announced yesterday that it has identified a target in the south Porcupine Basin, with the potential to produce one billion barrels of recoverable oil — a development which boosted the company’s share price by 354% yesterday.

Separately, Providence Resources — which recently said that its Barryroe field in the Celtic Sea could contain 280 million barrels — has said that seismic surveys of its Drombeg oil prospect, also in the southern Porcupine Basin, have indicated recoverable potential of around 872 million barrels from an oil-in-place volume of nearly three billion barrels.