Irish exploration firm Lansdowne Oil and Gas has shelved its sales process after the successful raise of £2.1m (€2.7m), allowing it to pay off debt and meet working capital requirements into next year.

Shares in Circle Oil slumped after the Irish-based North African energy firm, which has a large band of small Irish shareholders, issued a grim warning about its debt pile.

The next five years is a make or break period for Ireland’s burgeoning offshore exploration sector, an industry analyst said yesterday.

Management at Lansdowne Oil and Gas has maintained the company still has a future, despite highly anticipated drilling at one of its assets in the Celtic Sea failing to find any commercial potential.

Commissioning of Ormonde Mining’s flagship Barruecopardo tungsten project, in western Spain, is targeted for the end of next year.

The anticipated wave of consolidation set for the international oil and gas sector could be about to hit the Celtic Sea, with Lansdowne Oil & Gas — the minority shareholder in the Barryroe field — likely to be sold.

Davy Stockbrokers is forecasting a recovery and tightening in global oil prices in the second half of this year, adding that numbers can rise from the current $59 to $60 per barrel level to a long-term price of $80 per barrel.

Oil exploration drilling programmes off the Irish coast are expected to increase materially in the coming years, according to Davy Stockbrokers, who view the entry of Kosmos Energy as a potential game changer in Irish oil exploration.

A FURTHER oil find in the area has convinced Tullow Oil that its Owo discovery, off the coast of Ghana, has the potential to be another major oil field for the company.

PETROCELTIC, the Irish oil and gas exploration specialist, has issued a strongly positive medium-to-long term outlook, despite reporting a loss of $2.1 million (€1.44m) for the first half of this year.

AMINEX, the international oil and gas exploration company, has announced a deal to increase its stake in the Nyuni Production Sharing Agreement off the coast of Tanzania by 10% to 50% after agreeing terms with East African Exploration Ltd (EAX).

MINING group Glencar’s gold exploration activities in Mali, west Africa, have been endorsed in a separate brokers report.

TULLOW Oil Has concluded a farm-in agreement with Sonangol P&P to take a 15% interest in Block 10 offshore Angola which marks another significant development for the independently-owned oil company.

GLENCAR’S link-up with Gold Fields involving its Mali gold project is seen as a significant development within the industry.

SHARES in Ramco Energy plc, the developers of the Seven Heads Gas Field, are seriously undervalued according to Davy Stockbrokers.

Brian O’Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent

TULLOW OIL'S purchase of North Sea oil assets has been given the thumbs-up by its broker Davy Stockbrokers.