Irish offshore explorer Providence Resources says recent seismic has offered promising data on the Diablo Ridge ridge prospect in the southern Porcupine Basin.
Diablo Ridge is in frontier exploration license (FEL) 2/14 in the southern Porcupine Basin, offshore southwest Ireland.
FEL 2/14 is in c.2500m water depth, 220km off the west coast of Ireland.
Providence had already identified the Druid prospect in the license following newly acquired Polarcus MC3D seismic reflection data.
The most recent evaluation has focused on the pre-Cretaceous section within FEL 2/14 which has confirmed the presence of a large, ultra-deep north-south orientated pre-Cretaceous structure (Diablo Ridge) that had been evident on the previous 2D long offset seismic reflection profiles.
These new data provide a significant uplift in the detailed imaging of the ridge.
"Similar to the nearby Dunquin Ridge in FEL 3/04, the Diablo Ridge has also previously been interpreted to be of volcanic origin however, these new data clearly demonstrate the ridge to be a large rotated fault block with an internal reflectivity that is consistent with a Mesozoic sedimentary section," says Providence. "Notably, the crest of the Diablo Ridge exhibits a marked fluid escape feature which appears to be vertically connected with the overlying Drombeg and Druid prospects."
John O’Sullivan, Technical Director says: “These new 3D seismic data have significantly enhanced the pre-Cretaceous imaging within FEL 2/14 and confirm the presence of the large pre-Cretaceous Diablo Ridge with its notable crestal fluid escape feature. The internal seismic reflectivity suggests the potential for clastic reservoir development and whilst further work is required to understand the exploration potential of the ridge, we believe that its potential role in charging the overlying Drombeg and Druid prospects may be significant. It is notable that the Diablo Ridge lies paleogeographically on-trend with the recent Statoil-operated pre-Cretaceous oil discoveries on the Canadian conjugate margin in the Flemish Pass Basin. We believe that the encouraging initial results from the Polarcus multi-client 3D seismic survey have more than vindicated our decision in 2014 to underwrite this survey over FEL 2/14 and the surrounding area.”