Company hopes to strike oil off Kerry
The company announced that its drilling syndicate had agreed to sign a contract to bring a deep-sea rig to the Dunquin field off the south-west coast in early 2013.
The water at Dunquin is a mile deep and, unlike the find at Barryroe off the Cork coast, there have been no major finds in the area to build expectations.
Further exploration has been on the cards for two years since a site investigation tried to locate the best spot to start drilling following detailed surveys of the seabed.
The equipment the partnership has contracted is of a specialist nature and designed for deep water and difficult conditions, which are predominant in that part of the Porcupine basin. It will be available for six months, and the project is expected to take three months to complete.
If it was successful in finding gas or oil it would be significant for Providence as the area available to it is far larger than in Cork.
Unlike the apparently oil-rich reserve off Cork, Providence owns a 16% stake in the Dunquin option.
The deal to bring in a floating rig was reached with its partners in this particular avenue of exploration, ENI, Repsol and Sosina with ExxonMobil.
Exxon originally bought big into the Dunquin well after taking 80% of the stake in 2006, but subsequently watered this down with investment from other firms.
Providence has said it could be more lucrative than the Barryroe discovery.
At Barryroe, Providence has recently indicated that the prospects are greater than originally expected as there may be as much as 778 billion additional barrels available from lesser explored areas.
The company said it will have to commit further resources into assessing these locations, but it will concentrate its initial efforts on where it has declared there to be a commercially viable well.
A statement from the firm reiterated that it would continue to pursue options in different wells and in different regions off the Irish coast.
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