Providence hit by delay to £200k of funding

PROVIDENCE Resources says funding it was due to receive from Norwegian group SpotOn Energy has been delayed.

The troubled Irish oil explorer received £300,000 (€335,000) from SpotOn last month as part of a €2.75m fundraising. SpotOn had committed to a further £200,000 investment within six weeks of that announcement. But it now says the second instalment will be delayed a week.

The delay will inevitably prompt comparisons to last year’s long-running delay in the transfer of a promised $9m loan from Chinese company Apec. That saga ended with the money never arriving despite repeated assurances.

Providence blamed this delay on Covid-19 restrictions.

It said SpotOn “has experienced some delays in closing out the necessary arrangements with its consortium because of current working and travel restrictions”.

The investor has told Providence that the second tranche of funds will be delayed “by approximately one week”.

The deal with SpotOn relates to the farm-out of Standard Exploration Licence 1/11, which contains the Barryroe oil and gas field. SpotOn has been given a period of exclusivity until October 31 in respect of the license.

Providence said it will provide an update to the market upon receipt of funds.

In January, Alan Linn, an oil and gas veteran with more than 35 years’ experience in the sector, took the reins of Providence following the resignation of Tony O’Reilly Jnr at the end of last year.

The group implemented cost-cutting measures during the year, including a redundancy programme.