New oil find - Impressive discovery

We may grumble about escalating fuel prices at the petrol pumps but those very prices may be the key to a new era in Irish oil exploration.

A test well in the Barryroe block, 50km off the Cork coast and managed by Providence Resources, has produced more than 1,800 barrels of oil a day.

This is not the first time oil has been found on the Barryroe block, but today’s oil prices make its exploitation — if it is a viable find — far more likely.

Should impressive initial findings be sustained then we might be on the threshold of the kind of development, the kind of rising tide that would do a lot to help rebuild our economy. It is far too early to celebrate but the signs are that, in time, we might.