Barryroe is an oil and gas field discovered in the Atlantic ocean due south of Cork (city). Close to the exhausted Kinsale Head gas field, it is as close as 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the Kinsale Head existing pipeline. The discovery is at a water depth of 100 metres (330 ft). Several attempts were made to find a commercial field at the site in the 1970s but although they struck oil, none were commercially viable. It has been rated as the equivalent of a large North Sea oil field.
The well is currently 80% owned by Providence Resources and 20% by Lansdowne Oil & Gas. Providence intend to reduce this holding by inviting a major international firm to exploit this discovery.
Initial flow rates suggest 3,500 barrels per day (560 m3/d) of high quality crude, nearly twice the commercial target set by the firm. This has been revised as high as 20,000 barrels per day (3,200 m3/d), along with 1,350 barrels per day (215 m3/d) oil equivalent of natural gas.
Providence revised up the estimated reserve in place to between 1 and 1.6 billion barrels (160×10^6 and 250×10^6 m3) in July 2012. Analysts predict there are at least 160 million barrels of recoverable oil in place. The estimate recoverable amount of oils was again revised in October 2012 to 280 million barrels. In April 2013 an independent audit revised the recoverable total up to 311 million barrels (49.4×10^6 m3) barrels of oil, and 207 billion cubic feet (5.9 billion cubic metres) of gas. This gives a total of 346 million barrels (55.0×10^6 m3) of oil equivalent.