Oil and gas explorer Barryroe to enter voluntary liquidation after failing to secure licence

Company criticises Minister Eamon Ryan saying Ireland has lost the chance to reduce the emissions associated with importing oil and gas

Barryroe said the country has lost an opportunity to improve Ireland’s energy security. Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke

Barryroe Offshore Energy is to initiate an orderly wind-down of the business through a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation after it failed to secure a licence for further oil and gas explorations drilling off the southern Irish coast.

In an update this morning, the company said it will now prepare a notice to convene an EGM, to be held next month, to seek shareholder approval for the appointment of a liquidator to the company. 

Discussions with major shareholders as regards possible renewed funding continue and be pursued up to the date of the EGM but there is no guarantee that these discussions will be successful.

Last month, Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications and Transport Eamon Ryan rejected Barryroe's application for a lease to continue drilling operations off Ireland's south-west coast. The Green Party leader said he was not satisfied with the financial capability of the applicants.

It was a major setback for the company's long-running efforts to develop an oil and gas field in the Celtic Sea. Barryroe, previously Providence Resources, drilled the first exploration oil well at the Barryroe field in 2012.

Given the company’s funding situation and its intention to initiate a voluntary liquidation, Barryroe's ordinary shares will be suspended from trading with effect from 7.30 am today. The company's ordinary shares will remain suspended until such time as its funding situation is resolved or until the CVL process is complete.

"It has been a disappointing and deeply frustrating time for shareholders, management and the Board," chairman Peter Newman said. "In that context, the Board particularly recognises and appreciates shareholder patience and support. The funding solution put in place in November 2022 secured €40m held on deposit in escrow, ready to drawdown as needed, sufficient to fully cover the costs of the proposed appraisal programme. 

"Notwithstanding that secured funding, in assessing the company’s financial capability to deliver this commitment, the Minister has seen fit to apply his discretion, relying on reference to one, non-mandatory, ‘financial capability guideline’, arguably inconsistent with the limited scope of the work, thereby denying all efforts to progress appraisal of the Barryroe oil and gas field."

"In consequence the country has lost an opportunity to improve Ireland’s energy security, to reduce the emissions associated with importing oil and gas, to provide employment and future tax revenues and to diversify the country’s sources of primary energy supply. All at no cost to the public purse.”

Barryroe History

• Barryroe Offshore Energy, previously known as Providence Resources Plc, was established in 1997 following the demerge of energy company, Arcon. Placing its hydrocarbon assets into the new firm, Providence Resources was listed that same year on the Irish stock exchange and the Exploration Securities Market.
• By 2007, Providence Resources had expanded across Ireland, the UK, Africa and the USA, with successful drillings spanning from the Celtic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico and Nigeria.
• In 2010, the company assumed operatorship of the Barryroe oil well in Cork.
• In 2012, Providence found the first viable oil well in the Republic of Ireland, discovered 70km off the Cork coast. The oilfield was expected to yield up to 4,000 barrels of oil a day, far exceeding the firm's previous projections.
• In 2020, Providence Resources and Lansdowne Oil and Gas signed an agreement with SpotOn Energy that would see Barryroe oil and gas field go into production in the next three years.
• In 2022, the shareholders voted to rename the company Barryroe Offshore Energy, with the new name reflecting the firm's focus on the Cork oilfield.
• Later that year, Barryroe secured €40m in new funding to proceed to the next phase of drilling off the Cork coast.
• In May 2023, Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan rejected Barryroe's application for a lease to continue drilling operations off the southwest coast, saying that he was not satisfied with the company's financial capability.
• Barryroe warned that the refusal caused 'going concern issues' for the company, saying it had 'very limited working capital,' and was no longer proceeding with a proposed €20m share sale to raise capital.
• On the 19th of June, 2023, Barryroe Offshore Energy announced it would initiate an orderly wind-down of the business, adding that it would seek shareholder approval to appoint a liquidator to the company.