Irish oil and gas explorer Providence Resources has added two people to its board of directors.

Peter Newman and Ann-Marie O’Sullivan will join the board at the conclusion of the company’s AGM today.

Providence said the appointments are part of moving forward with its Barryroe offshore work programme.

Ms O’Sullivan is founder and CEO of AM O’Sullivan PR, a strategic communications consultancy headquartered in Cork.

Ms O’Sullivan has held a number of senior board positions with major organisations including Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Cork Chamber (of Commerce) and the Public Relations Consultants Association of Ireland.

She is a board member of Mercy University Hospital, a member of the Cork Airport Development Council, and is the current chair of the UCC Alumni Board.

Mr Newman was global head of Oil and Gas with Deloitte for seven years. During his time leading the Deloitte team, he worked with global energy companies including Shell and Perenco.

Prior to joining Deloitte, he was a partner and head of Oil and Gas for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region with Arthur Andersen.

He is a director of the Addax and Oryx Group (AOG), an entrepreneurial investment group that has “pioneered energy development” in Africa and the Middle East, according to a statement from Providence.

Mr Newman is also on the board of Motor Fuel Group, the UK’s largest independent petrol forecourt operator with over 900 sites. In addition, he is currently a director of Eclipse Shipping.

Welcoming the new additions to the board, Providence Resources new chair, James Menton, said: “Providence Resources is now moving forward with the development of the Barryroe oil and gas field. This will not only be transformational for Providence, it will also provide major benefits to Ireland and to the Cork region, as the country transitions to a low carbon economy.”

“These are important board appointments and I look forward to a further strengthening of the board in the coming months.”

Earlier this year Providence told shareholders it had terminated an important farm-out agreement with Norway’s SpotOn Energy, which was to have taken over the costs of pressing ahead with exploration in the Barryroe licence area off the coast of Cork.

The farm-out was conditional on SpotOn confirming that a minimum of $166m (€141m) in funding was in place for the early development programme.

The agreement was terminated because “key financing conditions were not met”, according to a statement from Providence at the time.

Providence will now lead the project development and funding arrangements for the license.