Tullow Oil, the Irish-founded driller, will acquire Norway’s Spring Energy AS for $372m (€286m) to add prospects in the North, Norwegian, and Barents Seas.

An Irish metal exploring company has stated that it has found evidence of gold in the Wicklow/Wexford area.

Irish mineral exploration firm Connemara Mining has said there is a good prospect of recoverable gold deposits at its licences on the border of counties Wicklow and Wexford, adding that it could start drilling in the coming months.

MORE than 153,000 drivers have penalty points but just three are off the road. Another 35 are two points short of the number needed for automatic disqualification, statistics published yesterday show.