Providence Resources and Star Energy have begun the ‘Ulysses Project”, a study to evaluate the carbon sequestration and natural gas storage potential of the Kish Bank Basin, offshore Ireland.
Providence and Star Energy were recently awarded a three year Licensing Option over eight blocks in the Kish Bank Basin by the Irish Government. The agreed work programme focusses on the oil and gas exploration potential of the basin while the Ulysses Project will specifically assess the potential for underground saline reservoirs in the Kish Bank Basin to be used as sites for CO2 sequestration as well as natural gas storage.
The study is being carried out on a fifty-fifty joint venture basis. Providence Resources is an Irish oil and gas production and development company. Star Energy Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas and a leading UK gas storage company, with gas storage developments both onshore and offshore United Kingdom and Western Europe.
Reducing Ireland’s Carbon Footprint
Tony O’Reilly, Chief Executive of Providence, said: “Providence has been evaluating various gas storage opportunities together with Star Energy since both companies entered into the Irish Gas Storage Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as part of the Singleton transaction which was completed in 2007. The Ulysses Project is the first of these opportunities we have agreed to proceed with and is particularly exciting for Providence given its proximity to the city of Dublin, with its large carbon footprint. If successful, we hope that the Ulysses Project may contribute to reducing Ireland’s carbon footprint as well as possibly increasing its natural gas storage capacity, both of which have been identified by the Irish Government as strategic national energy objectives.”
“The Ulysses Project which has the potential to be the first successful offshore carbon sequestration project in both Ireland and the United Kingdom,” said Roland Wessel, Chief Executive of Star Energy.
