Providence Resources notes conditional extensions for FEL 3/04

Providence Resources said the government has conditionally consented to a series of extensions on Frontier Exploration Licence 3/04 off the southwest coast of Ireland.

The Minister of State for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment's consent was to extend the second phase of the licence to 14 November 2019.

It was also to extend the subsequent third and fourth phases to 14 November 2021 and 2025, respectively, subject to the completion of the agreed work programme by the JV partners.

This work programme included the acquisition and processing of a minimum 1800 sq km of 3D seismic.

"In April 2017, the JV Partners agreed to underwrite and licence new multi-client 3D seismic data being acquired over FEL 3/04 and acquisition of this survey has commenced," said Providence Resources.

FEL 3/04 lies in about 1500m water in the southern Porcupine Basin. It was 170 km off the southwest coast of Ireland.

Chief executive Tony O'Reilly said he was pleased to have received this confirmation from the government on the licence extension.

"We continue to move forward with the evaluation of this licence."

At 14:05 BST, shares in AIM-listed Providence Resources were down 1.55% to 15.88p each.