Providence nearing need for alternative Barryroe funding

Providence Resources is getting closer to requiring alternative funding sources for the continued development of its flagship Barryroe oil and gas field off the Cork coast.

The Irish exploration company has, for the ninth time, extended the deadline for payment of a long-since promised $9m (€8m) loan from Chinese investor APEC Energy, which acquired a 50% stake in Barryroe last year.

Providence's share price fell 22% on its latest confirmation that the funding has not landed, despite it once again saying that it has received assurances the money is in the process of being paid.

The company is, however, forging ahead with necessary pre-drilling site survey work at Barryroe with a vessel arriving for that work later this week. Payment for that will be covered by Providence's existing capital reserves, but the company recently said it only had sufficient working capital up to the third week of September without the APEC loan in its bank account.

Providence said that without receipt of the $9m loan by the revised backstop extension - which is now up to next Monday, September 2 - it "would need to put in place alternative financing arrangements".

Analysts have suggested Providence may have to either raise debt finance or sell shares to fund ongoing work. The company has said it has options, without expanding on what they are.

It, however, now looks likely that Providence's planned multi-well drilling campaign at Barryroe - already delayed until the final quarter of this year - will now slip into 2020.