Providence Resources plans to commence drilling next year at its Rathlin Basin assets, off the Co Antrim coast, with the company saying its prospects there could contain up to 530 million barrels of oil.

London-based exploration company Europa Oil & Gas has said that it has identified two large, previously unknown, prospects off the west coast of Ireland.

THE British subsidiary of Irish oil and gas prospector Providence Resources has won its second exploration licence within a week.

PROVIDENCE Resources has been, indirectly, awarded a six-block exploration licence off the coast of the North.