Providence Resources' Druid exploration well has reached its first target in the 53/61-1 well and found the reservoir to be water wet. Drilling offshore Ireland will now continue to the deeper Drombeg target.
The well is being drilled by the Stena IceMAX drill ship in 2233m water depth, 220km off the southwest coast of Ireland, in the southern Porcupine Basin. Providence says the well penetrated the Paleocene Druid prospect within the pre-drill depth prognosis having been safely drilled to section target depth.
"Preliminary petrophysical analysis of logging while drilling data indicates that the Druid prospect comprises a porous water-bearing reservoir," the firm said.
Providence will now drill down to the deeper Lower Cretaceous Drombeg exploration target, some 1000m beneath Druid. A further operational update will be provided once the Drombeg prospect has been penetrated or as appropriate.
Druid and Drombeg are in FEL 2/14, operated by Providence Resources (56%) with partners Capricorn Ireland (a Cairn Energy subsidiary) and Sosina Exploration (14%). The license also contains the pre-Cretaceous Diablo prospect.