This article is from page 6 of the 2007-05-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
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The field, which is being developed jointly by Providence Resources and Challenger Minerals, has a massive reserve of one and a quarter trillion cubic feet of gas, as-well as 206 mil- hon barrels of oil. In total, the reserve is currently valued at €19.6 billion.
“We have agreed to work on this project with Challenger Minerals which is one of the biggest companies of their kind in the world. It is subject to the approval of Noel Dempsey, or whoever becomes Minister for Com- munications, Marine and Natural Resources after him,” said a spokes- person from Providence Resources.
“It is up to the Government when and how we proceed. Providence Resources have been undertaking a number of surveys and compiling a huge amount of information on the field. It is a very tightly regulated business as you would expect and there are many conditions and regu- lations which need to be adhered to.”
The Spanish Point field is located
around 200km off the coast of west Clare, just to the north of a Burren field of roughly the same size. No firm time-frame is currently in place for the development of the Burren field, which is also owned by Provi- dence Resources.
The Spanish Point field was discov- ered in 1981 by Phillips Petroleum and a consortium which included At- lantic Resources PLC, Providence’s predecessor company.
Providence Resources holds an 80 per cent interest in the field which is located in an area known as the Porcupine Basin, off the west coast. It is located underneath 300 to 400 metres of water over sandstone and is believed to date back to the Upper Jurassic Period.
Providence Resources PLC applied for and became operator of the Span- ish Point licence in November 2004, and now holds the licence for a 15 year-term.
Last month, Providence’s Chief Executive, Tony O’Reilly JNR, an- nounced a 10 per cent faring out of the Spanish Point project to Chal- lenger Minerals.
A spokesperson from the Petro- leum Affairs Division of the depart- ment said last week that there is at least €450 billion worth of oil lying off the west coast of Ireland.