Irish Offshore Spending to Hit $134.6m

Up to $134.6m will be spent on the Irish offshore this year as part of the busiest drilling program offshore Ireland in decades, according to a report in the Independent. With the Corrib partners completing a total of five production wells on the Corrib gas find, the program is also scheduled to include drilling on the Old Head of Kinsale gas find by Island Oil and Gas, as well as the Hook Head prospect, where Providence is the operator. Providence is scheduled at the beginning of August to start a 50-day drilling program over Hook Head in the Celtic Sea, a drilling campaign designed to test a structure on which two previous wells have discovered hydrocarbon bearing sands. The Island program is already under way, with the Petrolia rig having reached total depth on the pre-development drilling and testing of the Old Head of Kinsale gas field, a discovery made by the company last year. A report from Lehman Brothers said the 2007 increase is largely expected to come outside the US and Canada, with spending in the international markets likely to rise by 20pc from the 13pc increase forecast in December. Source: The Independent