Providence Resources has been granted a petroleum lease for its Helvick oilfield in Block 49/9 in the Celtic Sea, off the Waterford Coast.

Helvick has an estimated seven million barrels of recoverable oil and associated gas, according to Providence. It has agreed to sell all the oil to the State-owned Whitegate Refinery.

The oilfield was first discovered in 1983 by a group including Providence's predecessor company, Atlantic Resources, but technology at that stage did not make it viable to continue drilling. The oilfield, which consists of two wells, is not expected to come into production until the beginning of 2001.