Enegi Oil to Search for Irish Shale Gas

Junior explorer Enegi Oil announced Thursday that it has applied to the Irish government's Petroleum Affairs Department for an exploration license to search for shale gas after the successful completion of its work program on the Clare Basin Licensing Option.

The Clare Basin option was awarded to Enegi in February 2011, since when Enegi has carried out an extensive work program to procure and evaluate technical data and obtain and analyze new geological data to develop a provisional assessment of the potential of the license.

Enegi said the results of the work program indicate that – given the maturity, thickness and buried depth of the shale there – the whole area under the option remains prospective for shale gas. The firm added that the studies also highlighted an area within an existing seismic grid as being particularly high grade based on the thickness of the shale and the lack of faulting present.

In November, Enegi revealed that an independent report from Fugro Robertson estimated in-place resources within the acreage covered by the option of 3.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of free gas, with 1.2 Tcf of that being in the area identified as high grade.

Enegi CEO Alan Minty commented in a company statement:

"We believe the acreage covered by the Clare Basin Option is highly prospective. With this in mind and with the need to carry out further exploration work over the area, we have applied to the PAD to convert our option into an Exploration Licence which will allow us to carry out this work and to further prove up the potential that we believe this acreage holds.

"We look forward to hearing from the PAD on our application and providing further updates in due course."