Exploration company Providence Resources has reported a loss before tax of €9.8m for the six months to end of June, down from a profit of €600,000 the same time last year.
Revenues for the six-month period fell by over 4% to €5.7m due to decreased volumes caused by interruptions in the completion of works from the 2010 drilling operations which continued into 2011.
Providence said it incurred a once-off impairment charge of €4.4m related to the unfinished drilling programme at one of its Singleton's wells off the UK coast.
The company's chief executive Tony O'Reilly said the first six months of 2011 had been ''extremely busy'' for the company and its partners as it prepares to start ''the biggest concerted drilling programme ever carried offshore Ireland''.
''Providence's shareholders have waited patiently for this moment, and the forthcoming spudding of the first well in the programme, on the Barryroe oil discovery, is a momentous step forward that should not only unlock the value of this particular asset but should also trigger a complete industry re-appraisal of the Irish offshore,'' he added.
