The presence of a new, large Paleocene deep-water fan prospect ("Druid") confirmed by means of new 3D seismic data

16 June 2015

The Druid prospect is vertically stacked above the underlying Lower Cretaceous Drombeg prospect. The central part of the Druid fan exhibits seismic morphologies consistent with a thick sandstone reservoir system and an apparent depth consistent Class II AVO anomaly

The partner of SOSINA Exploration, Providence Resources the 10 June provided a technical update on Frontier Exploration Licence (FEL) 2/14 in the southern Porcupine Basin, offshore south-west Ireland. FEL 2/14 is located in c. 2,500 m water depth being c. 220 km off the west coast of Ireland and is operated by Providence (80%) on behalf of SOSINA (20%). The licence is located c. 70 km south-west of the 2013 ExxonMobil-operated 44/23-1 Dunquin North exploration well (Providence, 16%), which encountered a c. 44m residual oil column in Lower Cretaceous carbonates.

Providence has recently completed an initial assessment of the Paleocene section within FEL 2/14 using the newly acquired Polarcus MC3D seismic reflection data. This interpretation has confirmed the presence of a large c. 400 km2 Paleocene deep-water fan system, called ?Druid?, within FEL 2/14 which had been apparent on the previous 2D long offset seismic profiles. Druid is the second large prospect to be identified in FEL 2/14, following the previously identified Lower Cretaceous Drombeg prospect (estimated P50 prospective resources of 1.050 BBOE REC). 

These new 3D data provide a significant uplift in the detailed imaging of the internal depositional architecture within the Druid fan system and confirm that it has been sourced from the Porcupine Bank to the north-west. The central c. 60 km2 of the fan system exhibits marked mounded seismic morphologies which have previously been modelled to be consistent with a thick (up to c. 120 m) high porosity (up to c. 25%) shallowly buried (c. 1,700 m BML) sandstone reservoir system. This mounded central part of the Druid fan exhibits a marked Class II AVO anomaly, which appears to be terminated in the up-dip direction by an erosive intra-fan channel with the AVO anomaly appearing to be depth consistent in the down-dip direction.

The AVO anomaly also appears to be associated with a fluid escape feature from an underlying deeply buried pre-Cretaceous rotated fault block suggesting that it may be a direct hydrocarbon indicator (DHI). Further analyses of the 3D data to confirm this initial DHI assessment are ongoing. 

Elsewhere in the Porcupine Basin, Amoco (now part of BP) reported light tan oil bleeding from a Paleocene deep-water sandstone core taken in their 1988 35/18-1 well located in the Cairn-operated FEL 1/14 (SOSINA, 4%) c. 190 km to the east-northeast of Druid. The Druid prospect is vertically stacked with the underlying Lower Cretaceous Drombeg prospect, which currently is considered to be the primary exploration objective within FEL 2/14. 

ABOUT PROVIDENCE RESOURCES 

Providence Resources is an Irish based Oil and Gas Exploration Company with a portfolio of appraisal and exploration assets located offshore Ireland and the UK. Providence?s shares are quoted on the AIM in London and the ESM in Dublin. 

TERMS USED IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT 

AVO ? Amplitude Variation with Offset 

BBOE ? Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent 

BML ? Below Mud Line (Seabed)