Survey date approaching, but Providence still waiting on Barryroe loan

Irish Providence Resources is still waiting on a loan to cover the costs of a survey and pre-drill well consenting for the Barryroe prospect offshore Ireland. Meanwhile, subject to the receipt of funding, the survey is expected to start later this month. 

The Barryroe oil accumulation is located in Standard Exploration Licence (SEL) 1/11, which is operated by EXOLA (40% interest), a wholly-owned Providence subsidiary, on behalf of its partners, APEC and Lansdowne (10%).

The area lies in c. 100 meter water depth in the North Celtic Sea Basin and is located c. 50 km off the south coast of Ireland.

On June 5, 2019, Providence announced that it had agreed certain amendments to the farm-out agreement for the Barryroe Project with APEC and, together with EXOLA and Lansdowne, including a revised backstop date with APEC for receipt of the $9 million loan advance to June 14, 2019, which was subsequently extended through various extensions to August 12, 2019.

As at close of business on August 12, 2019, no funds had been received in the company’s account but the company has received further assurances that the $9 million loan advances due under the updated FOA are in the process of being paid, Providence said in a statement on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the Barryroe Partners have agreed to a backstop extension of on or before August 19, 2019.

Should these funds not be received by the revised backstop date and taking into account creditors on the balance sheet and existing forward commitments, including the necessary planned site survey at Barryroe and the proposed business re-engineering, the company would need to put in place alternative financing arrangements in order to provide it with sufficient working capital beyond the end of August 2019.

Site survey ‘later this month’ 

On August 9, 2019, the Barryroe Partners confirmed that they had received permission from the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to undertake a seabed debris clearance, environmental baseline and habitat assessment site survey over the area of the Barryroe field within SEL 1/11.

Providence said that the nominated vessel is currently finishing up current activities in the North Sea prior to the planned mobilization to Barryroe.

Pursuant to the terms of the updated farm-out agreement with APEC, and subject to the receipt of funding from APEC or alternative financing arrangements being put in place, the site survey is expected to start later this month.

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