Cairn Energy gets green light for Porcupine Basin licences

9th Jul 2013 09:15

Cairn Energy's shares rose on Tuesday as the company received regulatory approval for its farm-in as operator of exploration licences in the Porcupine Basin, offshore West Ireland. The company was given the green light by the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for its 38% interest in two licences and one licensing option covering 2,753 sq km in the Porcupine Basin.Cairn also announced it has entered a contract to secure a drilling rig for the planned Spanish Point appraisal well in licence FEL 2/04.The firm and its joint venture partners Chrysaor, Providence Resources and SOSINA Exploration will use the Blackford Dolphin, an enhanced Aker H3 deep-water semi submersible drilling rig.Subject to approval, the rig - which underwent a $400m deepwater upgrade in 2006 - will be mobilised to begin operations in the second quarter of 2014.Shares climbed 0.11% to 265.30p at 09:28.RD