Providence Resources announced details of its summer drilling programme in the Celtic Sea, offshore Ireland.

Using the Petrolia semi-submersible drilling rig, which has been secured for a 50 day drilling slot, Providence and its partners have elected to drill an appraisal well on the crest of the Hook Head prospect.

The Hook Head structure is a large mid-basinal anticline where two previous wells have successfully encountered hydrocarbon bearing sands. The original IRL50/11-1 discovery well, which was drilled by Marathon in 1971, logged c. 100 feet of hydrocarbons in five sandstone units of Lower Cretaceous age. The well was not flow-tested due to severe operational issues at the time. The subsequent IRL50/11-2 appraisal well, which was drilled by Marathon in 1975 was drilled as a delineation well at the down-dip edge of the structure.

Post-drill mapping by Marathon indicates that the crest of the structure is located to the north-east of the IRL50/11-1 discovery well, which is further supported by the seismic data acquired by Providence in 2006. This crestal location is some 2 km northeast of the IRL50/11-1 well and is thought to be c. 70 metres structurally higher than the original well. The most recent in-house volumetric estimates suggest that the Hook Head discovery could contain prospective resources of up to c.70 MMBO or 250 BSCFG REC.

Tony O'Reilly Jnr., Chief Executive, said, "I am delighted to announce that Providence and its partners have agreed to drill Hook Head this summer. This well is not only important for proving up commercial quantities of hydrocarbons at Hook Head, but success here will also open up other fields in the Celtic Sea for future development. I look forward to updating you further over the next few months on this very exciting programme".