Consent for Assignment of Interests in North Celtic Sea Lease Undertakings to MFDevCo

Consent for Assignment of Interests in North Celtic Sea Licences to Marginal Field Development Company Ltd.

MFDevCo is pleased to announce that the Minister of State (“the Minister”) at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment of Ireland has given his consent for the assignment to MFDevCo of:

• 10% interest in the Dunmore Lease Undertaking.
• 10% interest in the Helvick Lease Undertaking.

A two year Lease Undertaking in respect of each of the Dunmore and Helvick discoveries was granted by the Minister effective 1 March 2016 to allow for the evaluation of low-cost development options.  The award of the Lease Undertaking triggered a staged 50% farm-in by MFDevCo in each case, with an agreed work programme for staged equity participation as follows:

• 10% initial working interest assignment to MFDevCo.
• Further equity assignment (up to 40%) based on MFDevCo undertaking the agreed work programme to evaluate low-cost development options, receipt of a Petroleum Lease from the Minister and the approval of any Plan of Development.

The revised equity participations in the Dunmore Lease Undertaking will be Providence Resources plc 65.25% (Operator), Atlantic Petroleum (Ireland) Limited 16.50%, Sosina Exploration Limited 8.25% and MFDevCo 10.0%. 

For the Helvick Lease Undertaking, the revised equity participations will be Providence Resources plc 56.25% (Operator), Atlantic Petroleum (Ireland) Limited 16.50%, Sosina Exploration Limited 8.25%, Lansdowne Celtic Sea Limited 9% and MFDevCo 10.0%.

Enquiries:

Marginal Field Development Company                              

Alison Pegram, Managing Director                                                           Tel: + 44 161 817 8774

Note to Editors:

Dunmore

The Dunmore discovery is located approximately 20 kilometres north of the Hook Head discovery in the Celtic Sea.  In 1985/86 the operator at the time, Gulf Oil, drilled the 50/6-1 discovery well which flowed at a rate of approximately 2,100 BOPD of high quality (44° API) oil.  During 2008 Providence drilled the 50/6-4 appraisal well on the Dunmore structure and, whilst the well failed to prove the lateral extent of the hydrocarbon bearing Upper Jurassic sands, a new oil bearing carbonate interval was intersected.

Helvick

The Helvick oil field is located in Block 49/9, some 36 kilometres off the south coast of Ireland. The Helvick discovery well, 49/9-2, was drilled in 1983 and flowed at a cumulative rate of approximately 9,900 BOPD and 7.5 MMSCFGD.  Three appraisal wells were subsequently drilled in the late 1980s to delineate the field.  Further detailed analysis indicated that the Helvick reservoir is relatively small in size and, due to this small size and the oil price at the time, the field was not deemed commercially viable.  The Lease Undertaking was sought because MFDevCo and the Partners considered that Helvick was potentially commercial using the low-cost development solutions offered by MFDevCo and the Marginal Field Delivery Consortium (“Consortium”) and this will be evaluated through the agreed work programme.

Marginal Field Delivery Company

Marginal Field Delivery Company (‘MFDevCo’) focuses on maximising recovery from the vast, undeveloped hydrocarbon resources contained within marginal fields worldwide, utilising appropriate re-deployable solutions to transform these undervalued assets.  MFDevCo manages the entire lifecycle of marginal field projects from opportunity screening, suitability assessment and financing through engineering to production and decommissioning.