530m Barrels Of Oil Found At Rathlin

An Irish oil exploration firm has announced there could be 530m barrels of oil under the Rathlin Sound area, off the Antrim coast.

Dublin-based Providence Resources have said they will drill an exploration well next year to examine the Northern Ireland site, called the Polaris Prospect.

Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth called it a "retrograde step".

But Northern Ireland Director James Orr said: "It is an area with some of the best tidal energy resources and some of the best wind energy resources, not just in Ireland but in Europe.

"We should be exploiting those for clean and green energy. The exploitation of the remaining oil and gas resources around Ireland is very counter-productive."

The move follows surveys of the area in 2012.

The company said there were five anomalies which could be examined, with the Rathlin Sound location being the primary site.

Providence said the situation was similar to that of an onshore well at Ballinlea near Ballycastle in north Antrim, where oil was found in 2008.

Technical director John O'Sullivan said the results had been encouraging, and that it may be possible to drill from an onshore location.

"The Rathlin Basin has always been considered prospective due to the presence of a rich oil prone source rock, however poor seismic imaging has historically rendered it difficult to determine the basin's true hydrocarbon entrapment potential," he said.

"We believe that our application of new technologies such as Full Tensor Gradiometry should allow for a complete re-assessment of this frontier basin.

"We have now commenced planning for a future drilling programme in 2014, which includes necessary site investigations, local permitting requirements together with regulatory and local stakeholder liaison."

(IT)