Providence has concluded the appraisal drilling operation on the north-west flank of its Hook Head oil discovery in Standard Exploration Licence 2/07 in the North Celtic Sea Basin, offshore southern Ireland. The Company is now preparing to commence drilling operations on its nearby Dunmore oil discovery.

The Hook Head appraisal well (50/11-4) was drilled on the north-west flank of the Hook Head structure using the Transocean semi-submersible GSF Arctic II rig and was spudded on August 5th, 2008. The well was successfully drilled to a total depth (TD) of 4,875 feet true vertical depth subsea (TVDSS). All geological horizons in the Wealden sand package were within the pre-drill depth prognosis and oil and gas shows were encountered whilst drilling. The well encountered 30 feet of net hydrocarbon bearing Lower Cretaceous sands above the primary objective, which is of an equivalent age to those logged as being hydrocarbon bearing in the 50/11-3 well, located c. 2.3 km to the south-east. Reservoir quality across these intervals was excellent with average porosities of c. 27%. This well constitutes the fourth well to be drilled on the Hook Head structure, all of which have logged hydrocarbons.

However, given that the net hydrocarbon bearing intervals in the 50/11-4 well were substantially less than that which was expected in the pre-drill estimates, the Company and its partners took the decision to plug and abandon the 50/11-4 well. The initial well results suggest that the majority of the Hook Head resource lies in the central part of the structure already demonstrated by the 50/11-1 and 50/11-3 wells, however, the north-west flank could potentially provide additional incremental resources for any future development in the area. The 50/11-4 well results will now be integrated into the Hook Head full field model before finalising forward plans for the accumulation.

In the meantime, and as per programme, the Company has now started the process to move off Hook Head and mobilise the Arctic II drilling unit to the Dunmore oil appraisal well (50/6-D), located approximately 20 kilometres to the north of Hook Head. Drilling on Dunmore is expected to commence within 10 days. Tony O'Reilly, Chief Executive of Providence said:

"Whilst we were initially encouraged by the presence of hydrocarbons in some excellent quality sands in the upper sections, the less than expected net pay of 30 ft mitigated against the execution of what would have been a costly testing programme. Providence and its partners will now review the well data from this north-west panel, in combination with the previous wells, in order to chart an overall forward programme for Hook Head.

Looking ahead, we now turn our immediate attention to the appraisal drilling programme of the Dunmore oil discovery, which we expect to spud within the next 10 days. This appraisal well is designed to prove additional volumes and to test the Jurassic reservoirs seen in the original discovery well."

Tags: Providence Resources Plc