Tony O’Reilly jnr’s pay at Providence nears €6m for past decade

Tony O'Reilly jnr's salary at oil and gas explorer Providence Resources, which is currently raising money to shore up its finances, came to €494,000 last year - bringing his total remuneration over the past decade €5.8 million.

Mr O’Reilly’s latest remuneration, including €448,000 paid to Kildare Consulting Ltd, a company owned by him, for services to the company, were contained in the group’s annual report, published on Thursday.

The total compensation for the past decade includes about €800,000 of share-based pay. Providence’s stock has fallen by a third since early March to 11.75 pence each in London.

The company is in the process of raising $74 million (€67 million) from a share sale - which would reduce existing shareholders’ interest in the company to less than 25 per cent. The deal will bring the company’s equity-raising efforts over the past 10 years almost $240 million.

Court battle

The company said last week it will use some of the funds to meet the remaining $4.77 million of payments arising from the company's court battle with Transocean, an offshore drilling company which provided services for Providence's key Barryroe exploration site.

Trading in the stock resumed last week after a two-month hiatus as the litigation bill became clear in mid-April. The company only had $4 million of cash on hand at the time.

A further $20 million will be used to repay most of a debt owed to Melody Capital, a New York-based specialist lender.

Further money will bolster its finances and fund general and administrative costs as well as capital and licence expenditure linked its oil and gas project. The remainder is earmarked to fund its share of drilling at an exploration well on its so-called Druid prospect, a couple of hundred kilometres off the west coast of Ireland.