That the Madrid climate talks ended with an inconclusive agreement and a decision to ask countries to be more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions to realise the 2015 Paris accord shows we have, to use David Axelrod’s all-too-apt phrase, passed the swimsuit stage of international negotiations on climate change.

Shares in exploration company Providence Resources plummeted 12% on it losing another high profile development partner for one of its offshore Irish drilling prospects.

16 people have been found alive on board a ship on its way to Rosslare Port in Co Wexford.

Last month Minister for Marine Michael Creed closed the Celtic Sea herring fishery 48 hours after it opened because the stocks collapsed.

Existing oil contracts will not be impacted by a government ban on exploration, the Taoiseach has confirmed.

Millions of people marched yesterday demanding immediate action to try to avert climate collapse proportionate to the threat that catastrophe poses to our civilisation’s survival. Whether the world’s governments — especially those in America, China, and India — stir themselves from their stupor and respond is, amazingly, still an open question.

Minister for the Marine Michael Creed has been forced to close the Celtic Sea herring fishery due to a virtual collapse of the multi-million euro stock.

A Dublin-based renewable energy company is seeking a foreshore licence to assess the suitability of two offshore wind farm sites in Irish waters.

The Government has been urged, by a gas exploration company active in Irish waters, to clarify its long-term position on offshore drilling or risk losing inward investment.

More than a third of oil and gas exploration companies active in Irish waters are finding it difficult to source partners to develop their licences here.

Irish-focused exploration company Predator Oil and Gas is set to raise £1.3m (€1.5m) by floating on the London Stock Exchange, ahead of developing various prospects it holds off the coasts of Ireland and Trinidad in the Caribbean.

Providence Resources could drill off the west coast — as well as in the Celtic Sea — next year as it continues to ramp up exploration activity.

Joe Leogue revisits the Tina Satchwell missing person case as today marks six months since the last reported sighting of the Youghal woman.  

Tourism Ireland is to be asked to explain why a paid half-page advertorial on the Wild Atlantic Way in a British newspapers made no mention of West Cork.

Providence Resources boss Tony O’Reilly Jr has said landing a development partner for the company’s headline asset — the Barryroe oil and gas field off the Cork coast — remains the top priority despite a potential deal collapsing in the last few months.

Shares in Providence Resources jumped more than 7% yesterday on the back of the Dublin-based explorer reporting a near €4m narrowing of annual losses.

Four seals and a porpoise have been discovered washed up on a beach in west Waterford.

Fishing groups have welcomed the EU’s new deal for Ireland on next year’s quotas but said any short-term success at the negotiating table simply masks the need for “bigger battles” ahead.

Irish exploration firm Providence Resources looks set to save around $2.5m (€2.3m) in additional legal costs, arising from its recently concluded legal battle with drilling services firm Transocean.

Exploration company Providence Resources said it has entered the second half of the year with “renewed optimism” after seeing a near halving of its first-half losses and carrying out a company-saving funding round.

Providence Resources — the Tony O’Reilly Jr-led exploration company — has named former Tullow Oil senior executive Pat Plunkett as its chairman.

Petrel Resources — the Irish AIM-listed exploration firm — has reported a near 28% narrowing in first-half losses.

A number of so-called ‘super-majors’ — a term typically used to describe the biggest eight, or so, oil companies in the world — have shown interest in offshore assets held by freshly financed Irish explorer Providence Resources, its chief executive said yesterday.

Providence Resources chief Tony O’Reilly Jr has said he remains “hopeful” the company can land a long-awaited development partner for its flagship Barryroe field, in the Celtic Sea, in the next six months.

Providence Resources — the Tony O’Reilly Jr-led exploration firm — has announced plans to raise nearly $74m (€66m) in fresh funds via what is, essentially, a company saving share sale.

Troubled Irish explorer Lansdowne Oil and Gas has applied for a resumption of trading in its shares to take effect from Wednesday of this week.

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.

Dublin-listed drug firm Amryt Pharma is planning to widen the scope of its late-stage wound-healing drug this year, to target the $1.5bn (€1.3bn) orphan disease market.

Troubled Irish exploration firm Lansdowne Oil and Gas is seeking shareholder permission to issue new shares in the company in a bid to raise fresh equity to pay off debt and remain afloat.

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.

A costly court ruling yesterday put the spotlight on the terms of the debt deal that Providence Resources struck with Melody Finance late last year, as the Barryroe oil and gas explorer led by Tony O’Reilly Jnr unexpectedly lost a multi-million euro legal dispute with an international drilling company over delays in the Celtic Sea.

Low prices pose major challenge for sector, writes Geoff Percival.   

Fishermen generally welcomed an overall 10% rise in the quantity of whitefish they will be able to catch next year while newer conservation methods are showing significant success in increasing fish stocks generally.

Fishermen will have to land almost all they catch whether it is part of their quota or undersized, as part of phase two of the new EU fish policy that comes into effect from January.

Fastnet Equity is considering spinning out its Irish exploration assets into a separate entity, in a bid to derive future shareholder value from them.

ANY person who walks the length of the Munster Blackwater deserves an accolade, writes Donal Hickey

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.