HOUSTON—In February, the Republic of Ireland’s government launched the 2015 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round, which was the most successful licensing round in Ireland’s history.

With attention on its Atlantic Margin emerging frontier area, offshore Ireland is now being viewed as possibly analogous to the western Atlantic Ocean, which holds some of Canada’s offshore basins that are currently being explored by supermajors in an area known as the North Atlantic Jurassic Oil Superhighway. During the late 1970s, Ireland’s hydrocarbon potential was made analogous to the North Sea region.

“Ireland’s offshore area is vast but underexplored,” despite more than 50 years of E&P work, according to Brian Carroll, the assistant secretary general for natural resources at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources—Ireland. He and Tony Reilly, CEO of Providence Resources Plc, discussed commercial opportunities in Ireland’s oil and gas sector at an industry breakfast on Wednesday at OTC.

Ireland’s overall economy has changed over the decades, and its energy sector currently embraces the latest industry technology in the hopes of exploring and developing all areas, including those underserved. At 700,00 sq km (270,271 sq miles), Ireland’s entire designated offshore area is 10 times its land area, Carroll said.

Both 2-D and 3-D seismic are valuable technologies. Reilly said there is a hard chalk bottom in the Celtic Sea. The most sophisticated seismic technology would be needed to properly observe it. “Three-dimensional seismic is breaking through,” he said. The Celtic Sea area is separate from the Atlantic region and is open in terms of licensing, Carroll noted.

The Donegal, Erris, Slyne and Rockall basins; the Porcupine area; the Gobar Spur were the three main areas auctioned in the 2015 Atlantic Margin round, which provided licenses for up to two years. Carroll said standard licenses applied toward shallow-water areas, which are off the south and east coasts. Deepwater areas are off the west coast, he added.

The country is currently wholly dependent on 100% of oil exports and was only recently reliant on up to 90% of gas exports. Since the Corrib Field began flowing on New Year’s Eve 2015, only about 35% of gas has been imported, Carroll said.

Carroll said that up to 2050, the domestic demand for electricity and transportation would force fossil fuel dominance for a long time, with gas supplying the electric sector and oil fueling transportation. As a member of the EU, Ireland is connected to its energy market, which is worth 400 billion euros (US$460 billion).

While it has the latest industry technologies at hand, Ireland’s E&P industry also has the support of the government, as evidenced both by the 2015 licensing round and by initiatives dedicated to supporting exploration, such as the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG), that serve the E&P sector. Carroll said part of the government’s role is to maintain a framework for the industry that provides technological, safety and environmental regulation.

Offshore