The discovery of Ireland’s first commercial oilfield has raised the hope that the country’s ailing economy might be revived. Possibly worth $110 billion at yesterday’s prices, the wealth is comparable to the €85 billion emergency bailout arranged for Ireland in 2010.
The find, about 30 miles off Cork, was announced yesterday by Providence Resources, which owns 80 per cent of the field. “It’s just like winning the lottery,” said the chief executive, Tony O’Reilly Jr, whose father is the tycoon who owns Independent News and Media.
“It’s a defining moment for the Irish offshore oil and gas industry,” said Mr O’Reilly, who added that it could bring about an Irish oil bonanza and help
to remove Ireland’s almost complete dependence on imported energy. More than 90 per cent of its gas comes from overseas, and oil accounts for nealy 60 per cent of energy use overall, the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association said.
Analysis of Providence’s find, at its Barryroe well 330ft beneath the North Celtic Sea basin off southeast Ireland, suggests that it is part of a field probably containing 373 million barrels of oil, and possibly as much as 893 million barrels of high-quality light, sweet crude.
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There is the enticing prospect that this is just the start of much, much more to come. A report by the Irish Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources indicated that the country has several offshore prospects, with the potential to produce 10 billion barrels of oil.
Some Irish wells were drilled in the 1970s by big oil companies, but abandoned as uncommerical at a time when the price of crude was $35 a barrel, and there were far easier pickings elsewhere in the world. Such prices are a thing of the past. Yesterday Brent crude was $123 a barrel.
More discoveries of the Barryroe magnitude, with much of it coming ashore to Cork’s existing refinery, could transform Ireland’s second city as well as replenishing the Irish Government’s coffers. The Department of Finance levies a 25 per cent tax on any oil or gas revenues.
“The market’s moved to us. All the things that worked against the successful investigation and potential exploration of hydrocarbons offIreland are now working in our benefit,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“For Ireland obviously it’s important because it will get out there that people will think about Ireland and oil. And that then hopefully will attract oil and gas companies to come to Ireland and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll invest in Ireland’.”