Irish oil and gas company Providence Resources has started drilling operations on the 53/6-A exploration well program offshore Ireland.
The well is located in the Frontier Exploration Licence (FEL) 2/14, in the southern Porcupine Basin. The license is operated by Providence Resources (56%) on behalf of its partners Capricorn Ireland Limited (a subsidiary of Cairn Energy, 30%) and Sosina Exploration (14%).
The offshore license contains the Paleocene “Druid”, Lower Cretaceous “Drombeg” and pre-Cretaceous “Diablo” prospects.
The JV Partners have contracted the Stena IceMAX deep-water drillship to drill the 53/6-A well in FEL 2/14 to evaluate the vertically stacked Paleocene Druid and Lower Cretaceous Drombeg exploration prospects. The drillship was mobilized from its base in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria to the well location in late June.
Following consent from the Minister of Communications, Climate Action and Environment on July 11, 2017, Providence confirmed on Wednesday, July 12 that drilling operations on the 53/6-A well program have started.
The oil company also added that a further operational update will be provided once the Paleocene Druid prospect has been penetrated or as appropriate. Drilling is then planned to continue to the underlying Lower Cretaceous Drombeg prospect, Providence concluded the statement on Wednesday.