It's still early days, but expectations continue to rise with regard to Ireland's fledgling oil & gas industry. One of the chief players, Fastnet Oil & Gas (FAST), which is conducting a 50-day 3-D seismic survey of its licences, has announced that an independent assessment carried out by SLR Consulting has resulted in a significant increase in the resource estimate for its Shanagarry licence in the North Celtic Sea. Fastnet confirmed that the licence had an unrisked median resource of around 1.3bn barrels of oil, together with 1.34 trillion cubic feet of gas following an assessment of the 49/19-1 area.
Four hydrocarbon-bearing intervals were encountered within the system, which covers an area of 123 square kilometres, making it comparable in size to the Kinsale and Barryroe field structures. Fastnet makes the point that initial work was carried out at Shanagarry by Marathon Oil in 1984, albeit at a time of low oil prices (and inferior technology). This is instructive in that there are now numerous examples of profitable fields being opened up in the North Sea that were once deemed marginal by previous drill work by oil & gas majors.
