Lansdowne, Exola get extension at Barryroe

Independent offshore-Ireland focussed company Lansdowne Oil & Gas updated the market on Standard Exploration Licence 1/11, which contains the Barryroe oil accumulation, on Thursday, saying that it and its partners had been granted a two-year extension to the term of the first phase of the licence, to July 2019.

The AIM-traded company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Lansdowne Celtic Sea holds a 20% interest in SEL 1/11, which is operated by Exola DAC with an 80% interest, itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of Providence Resources.

SEL 1/11 lies in water depth of around 100 metres in the North Celtic Sea Basin, and was around 50 kilometres off the south coast of Ireland.

In addition to the extension to the term of the first phase of the licence, the partners had been granted an extension to the overall term to July 2021 by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

The extensions were subject to the Barryroe Partners carrying out a work programme that included the evaluation of newly reprocessed 3D seismic data together with an assessment of the Jurassic and Triassic exploration potential of the licence area.

“We are very pleased to be granted these extensions to the Barryroe licence, which provides additional security of tenure whilst we continue the farm-out process,” said CEO Steve Boldy.

“The Barryroe partners are in dialogue with a number of parties regarding advancing the appraisal of Barryroe through to first oil.

“The extension work programme includes evaluating the deeper exploration potential of the licence, which offers exciting upside, over and above the substantial resources already identified in Barryroe.”