The recent gas find by Enterprise Oil off the west coast of Ireland will be a "major boost to Irish exploration", according to Dr John Teeling, chairman of Petrel Resources.

He said Petrel holds one of the largest databases on offshore Irish oil and gas and early stage interest has been shown by one multinational in "certain areas identified by Petrel". The area is offshore Ireland, he said. The multinational is understood to be US based. Petrel has a share quotation on the OFEX market in London and an interim statement said there had been positive indications from a seismic survey in Uganda. The licence covers one million acres at the southern end of Lake Albert. The seismic data, Dr Teeling said, clearly demonstrated "the presence of over 4,000 metres of prospective sedimentary sands".

Petrel has a 10 per cent interest in the licence with Heritage Oil & Gas holding the remaining 90 per cent. Once testing of the data has been completed, a decision will be made on drilling.