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Celtic Sea drilling has commenced

6 August 2008

The operations will include drilling of appraisal wells at Hook Head and Dunmore

SOSINA and its partners have commenced drilling operations on their multi-well drilling programme on Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 in the North Celtic Sea Basin, offshore southern Ireland.

Using the Transocean GSF Arctic II semi-submersible rig, drilling operations on the initial Hook Head appraisal well (50/11-4) commenced at 12:00pm on Tuesday, August 5th.

Following completion of this well, a further appraisal well, (50/6-4), is planned to be drilled on the nearby Dunmore oil accumulation, located approximately 20 kilometres to the north of the Hook Head oil accumulation.

It is anticipated that the multi-well drilling programme will take up to 3 months, which includes a provision for a comprehensive wireline logging and testing programme.

The Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 partners and their respective percentages are Providence Resources Plc (Operator) 48.6556%, Challeneger Minerals (Celtic Sea) Limited 24.5%, Forest Gate Resources Inc. 8.3889%, Atlantic Petroleum (Ireland) Limited 12.3037% and SOSINA Exploration Limited 6.1519%.

Contacts:

Dr. David J. Davies

Managing Director, CEO

SOSINA Exploration Ltd

1 Berry St

Aberdeen AB25 1HF

Tel: +44 1224 845464
Mob: +44 (0)7703 293 649

Mr. John Ødegaard,

Chairman of the Board

Tel: +45 35 31 10 02

Mobile: +45 27 26 00 03

Map

Click on the map if you want to enlarge or download.

Notes to Editors

Celtic Sea Standard Exploration Licence 2/07

Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 refers to part blocks 49/22, 49/23, 48/29, 48/30, 49/26, 49/27, 49/28, 49/8, 49/9, 49/13, 49/14, 50/6, 50/7 & 50/11 in the North Celtic Sea Basin, offshore southern Ireland. The current Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 partners and their respective percentages are Providence Resources Plc (Operator) 48.6556%, Challenger Minerals (Celtic Sea) Limited 24.5%, Forest Gate Resources Inc. 8.3889%, Atlantic Petroleum (Ireland) Limited 12.3037% and SOSINA Exploration Limited 6.1519%.

About Hook Head

The Hook Head Field is located in c. 240' water depth being c. 60 km offshore Wexford and is situated in Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 in the North Celtic Sea Basin. The Hook Head structure is a large mid-basinal anticline where three previous wells have successfully encountered hydrocarbon bearing sands. The original 50/11-1 discovery well, which was drilled by Marathon in 1971, logged c. 100 feet of hydrocarbon bearing section in five sandstone units of Lower Cretaceous age. The well was not flow-tested due to severe operational issues at that time. The subsequent 50/11-2 appraisal well, which was drilled by Marathon in 1975 was drilled as a delineation well at the down-dip edge of the structure and encountered c. 25' of hydrocarbon bearing section.

In 2007, Providence drilled the 50/11-3 well on a central location some 2 km northeast of the 50/11-1 well and successfully logged a total of c. 110' of net hydrocarbon bearing reservoir. The reservoir zones are of equivalent age to those encountered in the 50/11-1 & 2 wells, located c. 2.5 km and c. 5 km to the south-west, respectively. Whilst key reservoir and fluid data were acquired during the initial well flowing period, down-hole mechanical conditions, which were primarily related to the integrity of the casing string cement bond, delayed the implementation of a full flow test programme. The 50/11-3 well was suspended for future re-entry and potential use as a production well.

About Dunmore

The Dunmore oil discovery is located in c. 70 metre water depth being c. 40 km offshore Wexford and is situated in Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 in the North Celtic Sea Basin. The 50/6-1 discovery well was drilled in 1986 by Gulf Oil (now part of Chevron), and tested a c. 60' gross interval at a rate of c. 2,100 BOPD from sands of Upper Jurassic age at a depth of c. 5,000' TVDSS. The oil is a light, sweet, 44o API crude and is interpreted to be trapped in a downthrown terrace structure. Mapping of reprocessed 2D seismic data now suggest that this structure rises to the east of the 50/6-1 well location and that an appraisal well would be optimally drilled c. 500' up-dip from the 50/6-1 well. On the assumption that a common contact exists between the 50/6-1 discovery well and this crestal area, a number of sands which were water bearing in the original well should be oil bearing at the crestal area thereby significantly increasing the potential flow rates.


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