Ireland’s next Atlantic Margin oil and gas exploration licensing round is to be announced following a review of the country’s oil and gas fiscal terms, due to be completed early 2014, the country’s government has announced.
The round is scheduled to open in April 2014, and will close in September 2015. It will include all Ireland’s major Atlantic basins. The form of license on offer will be a two year licensing option.
Image: The Eirik Raude semisubmersible was used by ExxonMobil to drill the Dunquin prospect offshore Ireland earlier this year.
Ireland’s minister for natural resources, Fergus O’Dowd, speaking at the Atlantic Ireland Conference in Dublin today, highlighted increased interest in the oil and gas potential offshore Ireland.
“The Government’s strategy for the exploitation of the State’s natural hydrocarbon resources aims to maximize the level of exploration activity and increase the level of production activity, while ensuring a fair return to the State from these activities,” he said.
The minister welcomed recent entry into the Irish basins by independent oil companies Cairn, Kosmos and Woodside.
He noted that applications had been received by his department to convert 12 of the 13 licensing options issued under the 2011 Atlantic Margin licensing round to full frontier exploration licenses, and that this would result in a step-change in exploration activity levels in the coming years.
The minister indicated that the conditions of the next round will seek to address the fact that, in the 2011 licensing round, there were large areas in the Irish Offshore for which no applications were received.
Noting that there had been no new commercial discoveries in the Irish Offshore since the discovery of the Corrib gas field in 1996, he said “whilst growth in exploration activity increases the chance of commercial discoveries being made, it brings no guarantees.”
The full text of the Minister’s speech can be accessed here: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Corporate+Units/Press+Room/Speeches/2013/Address+by+Minister+ODowd+at+the+Atlantic+Ireland+Conference.htm
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