Exploration company Providence says its new subsidiary Eirgas has secured an option to buy 40% of the Kinsale Head area assets in the Celtic Sea from Petronas.
This would give the company a stake in Kinsale Head, South West Kinsale and the Ballycotton gas fields as well as an 86.5% interest in the gas producing Seven Head field.
Providence says the move will see its daily production rate double to over 4,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It will also gain access to existing and new gas storage and trading opportunites.
Eirgas was established recently by Providence to invest in gas production, storage and trading opportunites offshore Ireland and the UK.
The granting of the option follows Petronas' purchase of a 100% interest in the Kinsale Head gas fields from Marathon Petroleum Venus, which was first announced last December and finalised in April. The deal was worth $180m.
Commenting on the move, Providence CEO Tony O'Reilly said the deal gives the firm exposure to the technical resources of Malaysia's Petronas, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies.
'Additionally, the deal would also give Eirgas an opportunity to potentially monetise gas from some of Providence's adjacent gas discoveries in the Celtic Sea, as well as from third party fields,' he added.
Tullow, Petroceltic drilling progresses
Tullow Oil has said drilling at its Kigogole-3 exploration well, which is located in the Butiaba region of Uganda, has encountered oil in two separate zones.
Tullow says the well is located southwest of the Kigogole-1 oil discovery made in 2008. The Kigogole-3 well is now being suspended as a future oil producer.
Meanwhile Petroceltic has said well INE-2, the first in its current drilling campaign on the Isarene Block in the Illizi basin of Algeria, has been successfully drilled. It said drilling data had confirmed gas bearing intervals which were in line with expectations.
