Ireland finally found treasure at the end of the rainbow, or so it seemed in 2012. After drilling in the North Celtic Sea Basin, about 40 miles off the Cork coast, Providence Resources Plc said its Barryroe oil field may hold as many as 1.6 billion barrels. The company’s shares surged, and the government hailed the first “significant” test of oil flows off Ireland for 12 years just as the nation’s debt-ravaged finances cried out for a boost. Two years later, Providence still hasn’t found a partner to develop Barryroe, production has been delayed and the company’s share price has dropped 84 percent. For Ireland, it’s turned into another stalled attempt to emulate the North Sea discoveries that transformed economies and are underpinning Scotland’s bid for independence. “Every couple of years we have the ‘black gold’ headlines, we are going to be the new North Sea,” Pat Shannon, geology […]