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Petrel Resources plc (LSE:PET) more than doubled its market value today and reached a 66-week high as the Irish-incorporated oil and gas explorer ventured to say there is about a billion barrels of oil potentially lying within its acreage at the highly prospective Atlantic waters west of Ireland.
The company’s Managing Director, David Hogan, said a number of prospects has been identified within the 1,400 – square kilometre licence located in the South Porcupine Basin west of the country, putting the share price up 141% to 14.625 pence a share on the London Stock Exchange by 12:15 PM GMT.
Roads to frontier hydrocarbon exploration seemed to find their way to Irish waters as the finder of the first commercial oil and gas deposits, Providence Resources plc (LSE:PVR), also estimated one billion barrels of oil potentially present in its own licence within the South Porcupine Basin, as reported today.
Interest in the hydrocarbon deposits of the South Porcupine Basin has been increasing amongst oil and gas players in search for frontier resources, following discoveries in East Africa and in the Falkland Islands waters.
“We have long known that Ireland’s offshore Porcupine Basin is a hydrocarbon province. There are established petroleum systems, reservoir sands and possible traps at several levels,” stated Mr. Hogan.
The province has always been thought to have huge amounts of oil deposits since oil was discovered in 1980 but development was stalled because of low prices and lack of infrastructure.
Europa Oil & Gas (LSE:EOG) also said six days ago that its own acreage in the same basin potentially contains up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and is actively looking for a potential partner to share the burden of exploring the area.
Exxon Mobil is set to drill one prospect from the same basin by the first quarter of 2013 for a hopeful discovery of up to 3.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Irish Oil Industry in the Works
Should all prospects proved hydrocarbon deposits, the discoveries will further add to the anticipated creation of an oil and gas industry in Ireland that could help boost balance of payment for the country bailed out for €85 billion following the global financial crisis.
Providence Resources has already created a 25-year extraction model for its Barryroe discovery in the Celtic Sea to produce a total volume of 280 million barrels.
All three firms – Petrel, Providence, and Europa – are to meet at the Atlantic Ireland Conference in Dublin today to present their latest findings offshore of the country.
