Providence Resource (LON:PVR), the Irish oil and gas exploration and production company, announced today that RPS Energy has completed a third party audit of Baxter's Copse prospect, and found that there is significantly larger oil accumulation than was previously thought. The Baxter's Copse discovery is located in the Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence (PEDL) 233, in the Weald Basin, Onshore UK. Providence holds an operated 50% equity interest together with Northern Petroleum. Baxter's Copse is directly adjacent to Providence's 99.125% owned Singleton Oil field, currently producing over 800boe/d.
Analysis of the Baxter's Corpse revealed circa 2P and 3P of undeveloped gross reserves of c. 5.4MMbo and c.15MMbo, respectively. The partners have agreed a work programme to advance the Baxter's Copse discovery to development with the first potential horizontal production well to be drilled from the Singleton facilities in 2011. The Group also plans to further evaluate the other prospects and discoveries within PEDL 233. Tony O'Reilly, Chief Executive of Providence, commented:
"We are very pleased to report that our work programme on Baxter's Copse has dramatically upgraded the field's reserve potential and accelerated it towards development. The deployment of modern seismic processing technologies has been the key to understanding the potential of the Baxter's Copse discovery and this, together with our recent redevelopment activities at the Singleton field, bode well for the ultimate exploitation of these significant reserves. We look forward to working with our partner Northern Petroleum in the coming months to advance Baxter's Copse to first oil in 2011, which is good news for Providence and its shareholders."
