"Green" policies are destroying this country

Uh, I just blew your alleged "poor results" out of the water with no comeback from you, and I'm the one moving the goalposts?

Fairly easily explicable, actually, if you knew the history. Esso drilled two wells in 1973-74 which flowed 1500 bbl/day. This was the era of giant North Sea discoveries, and comparatively primitive technology, so commercial viability had a very different definition back then. Marathon (who later became Kinsale Energy Limited) were also drilling the Celtic Sea in the 70s but instead of discovering oil they found gas. As you know, Kinsale Head produced most of the country's gas for forty years. Marathon then came back and drilled what is now Barryroe in 1990. Once again they hit gas in what became the Seven Heads field, an extension of Kinsale Head. That gas came online in 2003. Barryroe sits vertically under Seven Heads. Seven Heads is simply the name given to the Upper Wealden Sands. Barryroe consists of Middle, Lower, and Basal Wealden sands which, along with the Purbeckian are all part of the same Cretaceous hydrocarbon deposit. There is a possible further Jurassic oil horizon sitting even lower again. So, in fact, this area has been producing commercial hydrocarbons since the 1990s.

Providence drilled Barryroe in 2011. The drill was beset by difficulties. The rickety old rig hired from TransOcean broke down and delays pushed the drill into a bad weather window. A planned sidetrack well never got drilled. Testing of the intervals that were drilled was limited because they hit gas as well as oil but were only equipped to test the latter. A dispute with TransOcean over costs turned into multi-year litigation, a case eventually lost by Providence. Meanwhile Providence -- who were an explorer and never intended to be an oil field operator -- went wildcat drilling in the Atlantic. O'Reilly's idea was that he would clock up a raft of discoveries and sell them on to an oil major for easy money. He never intended to have to develop Barryroe himself. We know how that worked out. From 2014 onwards there was a slump in the oil markets and the majors were pulling in their horns on investments ( -- that underinvestment is still costing us in terms of today's high oil prices). O'Reilly had frittered away money on his wildcats that could have developed Barryroe. Now he was left chasing a bunch of chancers for development funds, and tapping up shareholders for spare change to keep the lights on at company HQ.

All of them dodgy characters, none of them actual oil companies. Spot On did actually put together a consortium of majors capable of doing the development work, who are still available even though Spot On failed on the fund raising front. (Another long story involving the Norwegian government). None of the failures had anything to do with Barryroe technicals.

Great! Let Ryan issue the petroleum lease undertaking so, as he should have nothing to worry about. Providence will eventually have to relinquish the license and Ryan can put it in the lockbox along with all the other exploration licenses that will never get developed. Nothing to worry about, right? 😉

Not at all baffling. It's all part of the Green virtue signalling that views it as ok to import 100% of our oil and soon 100% of our gas plus French nuclear, as long as we don't dirty our own hands. Ignore the fact that imported hydrocarbons have a higher CO2 footprint than indigenous resources. Ignore the fact that Big Wind is bilking us for government handouts while moaning about oil subsidies. All will be paid for by taxing the living hell out of citizens who have been terrified into compliance. It will all be worth it when we've saved 0.05% of global emissions and 0.0°C of warming. (And don't mention the fact that we are rapidly failing at even that).

Then you must love the fact that the self-same incompetent who led Providence is now in charge of Ireland's hydrogen dreams. LOL.

If "It`s a documented requirement for all offshore developments" then you will have no difficulty in providing the financial cost for the E.S.B. offshore plan, so lets see it.

The bitterness on Ryan now being backed into a corner of his own making is palpable and the faux concern of Larry Goodman losing money on the venture based on nothing other than your own guesswork and what somebody down the pub told you comparing nuclear fusion to oil is highly amusing.

The painful truth for you, Ryan and anyone else that backed this scandalous use of Ministerial office by foot-dragging, hand-sitting and bully-boy tactics have just been handed their ass`s on plates. Other than issue the permit that should have been issued on day one, the only other option now open to Ryan is to attempt the same messing around with Goodman, and unless he is dumber than a brick, (and admittedly there is no evidence to suggest he is not), then I cannot see that ending well for him.

So why don`t you just suck it up and move on and at least attempt to add something to the debate. You could start with your assertion that financial viability is a documented requirement for all offshore development by posting just what that is for this E.S.B. offshore plan you are so keen on.

I don’t think dacor is a member of the GP.

Sounds a bit like John gibbons though…….

Oh don't worry -- O'Reilly always got paid, regardless of Providence's fortunes. Best part of a million a year IIRC. They had to pay him extra to get lost in the end too. There's a certain class of person who swans from one C-suite job to the next. The main qualifications seem to be a giant sense of entitlement and lack of shame. Puts a big smile on my face that he's the guy who'll be implementing Da Cor's green hydrogen dreams (tempered only by the fact that it's going to cost Ireland a packet).