Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: net pay

#COASTAL NOTES - Providence Resources has found light out with its first appraisal well off the south coast of Ireland, Offshore reports.

The company's semi-submersible GSF Arctic III drilled a well in 100m water to a depth of more than 2km on its Barryroe structure in the north Celtic Sea.

Indications of hydrocarbons were noted during the drilling, and further tests have confirmed the presence of 12.5m of 'net pay' (the thickness of rock that can deliver oil at a profitable rate) with as much as 87% hydrocarbon saturation.

The next stage will be a well flow test programme to determine whether future oil extraction can proceed.

“The confirmation of high quality light oil within a porous and potentially laterally extensive sandstone system is extremely encouraging," said technical director John O'Sullivan.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, plans by Providence Rescources to prospect for oil pn the east coast off Dalkey Island have been met with fierce opposition by mainland residents and environmental groups.

Offshore has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago