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GAS IS EXPECTED to be available from the controversial Corrib gas field by mid-2015.
Construction on the onshore section of the pipeline is expected to be completed by Shell early next year.
Junior Energy and Natural Resources Minister Joe McHugh recently told the Dáil the Corrib project will make “a significant contribution” to Ireland’s gas supply.
“It is estimated that the project will have an operating life span of between 15 to 20 years and gas production will on average meet 42% of all island gas demand over the first 2 years of operation declining thereafter,” McHugh said.
“I understand that the bulk of the gas produced from the Corrib field will be supplied to the national grid via the 149km pipeline constructed by Bord Gáis Networks and which runs from the Gas terminal in Bellinaboy, Co Mayo to Ballymoneen outside of Galway,” he added.
When responding to a parliamentary question asked by Deputy Bernard Durkan, McHugh said there have been “no new commercial discoveries of oil and gas within the territory of the State since the discovery of the Corrib Gas Field in 1996″.
Flare tests took place at the plant in November, in preparation for its opening.
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Which our government gave away for little or nothing and we going to have to pay big price for it
Yes Owen.
We are giving away our oil and gas resources so cheaply that our seas are dotted with oil and gas rigs pumping away furiously….
….oh wait……
Owen if we were blessed with vast resources like our friends in Norway you can be sure they would be everywhere with I suspect no regard for the environment,also I am sure that our glorious leaders would give away for nothing.As we say down the country if there is a wrong way to do it the Irish politicians will fine it.
Sorry Owen that reply was for David
This is why history is so important ….
Great to see the Gas finally come ashore. Has been held up for too long and has provided much employment to the most desolate part of Ireland.
Desolate – condescend much ?
desolate
adjective
ˈdɛs(ə)lət/
1.
(of a place) uninhabited and giving an impression of bleak emptiness.
“a desolate Pennine moor”
synonyms: barren, bleak, stark, bare, dismal, grim;
Thanks for the back-up Cuppan – there’s no way Enda Kenny a Mayo man would describe Belmullet as desolate and he is Taoiseach and from Mayo and all – as am I ..
Belmullet is beautiful !
I hear the new Government are going to launch a serious investigation into the E.P.A. official(s) who allowed that fiasco develop in court some time ago …
I’m agreeing with Steve. It is desolate up there.
Condescend much, use americanisms much?…..maybe too f####n much,
The story of Mr. Bobbington should be compulsory reading ….
What a great country. Shell will now sell to the Irish people at full market price what is rightfully theirs.
The govts of ff and fg gave the field away for nothing.
They then paid every expense that shell had in constructing the refinery, pipeline etc. This is paid for as every cost is tax deductible.
You then buy back what was yours and you paid to extract already.
What about the jobs? Yet again, these jobs are no better to the state than paying for unemployment benefit as it is the state who pay every cent of their wages.
Well, a vote for SF will fix that.
Their (limited) policy documents tell of the creation of a state exploration company that will spend billions finding what the private sector has failed to find for decades.
We merely declare the deal illegal due to Ray Burke’s involvement and certain other drink related incidents and thank shell for nothing – Why are the Rangers the best soldiers in the world ?
legally the deal had to follow best international practice – we have precedent in Norway’s rate and in Argentina’s re-assertion of its rights – Shell and most judges and lawyers know this – I would be checking them for brown envelopes as well …
This is of course a job for the new Government and not the spineless sell-out merchants currently in office…..
The thing is Business Cat…Everyone has been looking in the wrong place all these years. According to “sensitive” SF documents there is more oil under South Armagh and Louth than Saudi Arabia and Iraq combined….
Sure why wouldn’t the state start drilling at only €100 million per well?
We’ve money coming out our ears, don’t we?
Declare the deal illegal – tear up a sovereign contract now that the thing is built and the gas is flowing!? I wonder what would that do for Ireland’s international reputation and foreign investment. Sometimes I think it would actually be a bit of craic to have Sinn Fein in power to see how much damage they could do.
But sure Royal Dutch Shell have registered their costs with the taxman – they can be compensated as a contractor that built something ……
If you get a builder to build a house – you pay him and he leaves — he doesn’t move in and start renting out rooms under your nose …(NAMA excluded obviously)
Wasn’t there oil discovered off the coast of cork last year?
More than likely it has already been sold to private investors..
The amount of oil sold from Irish wells is still tracking consistently at zero barrels.
So that picture of Gavin Reilly with some oil from Barryroe about a year or more ago was a hoax or what Mr. Cat ?
Not in commercial quantities.
311 million barrels ? that’s – 31,100,000,000, dollars at 100 dollars a barrel -
31 billion dollars- yeah that’s not commercial …Someone is telling Porkies ..and then we have the 20 Billion Dollar Spanish Point ….
Do you see now why austerity and privatising Irish Water was such a bad idea – waking up the Irish like that – still it’s great to see Tony O’Reilly kept his job even though he is supposed to be broke !
Bitter much Dermot
Declare the deal illegal – tear up a sovereign contract now that the thing is built and the gas is flowing!? I wonder what would that do for Ireland’s international reputation and foreign investment. Sometimes I think it would actually be a bit of craic to have Sinn Fein in power to see how much damage they could do.
Well, we know from recent media appearances that the far-left (AAA) wish to forcibly seize private businesses…..
The commies are all the rage here these days.
Stranger things have happened.
The biggest problem with the gas is that with Iisil and the North Koreans and the Russians being so evil nowadays we may have to shut it down for security reasons …..
But that’s o.k. because we have plenty of turf and timber in Ireland ……
It not bitter Tom – it’s disgust at sell-out merchants who have a proven track record in protecting paedophiles among other things …… yourself , how are you today ….
I’d say it was the Landsdowne Oil reference that really peed some of ye off is it ?
Or is it the 500 million barrels and its proof above , and we haven’t even looked at Kerry yet ….
Business – it’s about sharing , not seizing , it’s about reining ion gluttony that is ruining Ireland at a political level ..to me at any rate and it should be in the socialists mind too ….
On a far more interesting topic – do you think that if we are going to have a referendum on the age of presidential candidates should we not also include a compulsory retirement age on politicians as well – especially given all the evidence of mental capacity waning with the age of the individual …
Since when is business about sharing ??? it’s about a lot of things but sharing would not be high in a factor scale when starting a new business. Risk = rewards, effort = rewards, good planning = rewards etc etc, but it is far more to do with reward than sharing
There are communal constitutional communal property rights issues at stake here – that completely changes the perspective – if for example bribes or blackmail or “dark forces” were operating against the Irish people then you are gonna have trouble – because when you have the likes of Enda Kenny and others telling us it’s o.k. and they are continuously caught out lying then you know that there may be something occurring without the rules of Law or the rules of business as described by yourself.
Tax is a share from everyone to the common good – if I extend your rules then I as a private person should not pay any tax if I pay water charges, energy bills, and have my own health care, bins my own sewage etc. and if I home school the only thing I am missing is security and that spends a lot of it’s time closing down stations and spending time in Mayo and in Dublin or after a water metres ..So why should I pay a penny to the State ?
In terms of reward – you are absolutely correct – but the benefit of sharing to a company (paying tax) is that it enjoys all the State services – airports , haulage companies , energy supply guarantee .
If the State wished it could value the cost of these services differently and collect tax that way – 100% carbon tax on companies that don’t give proper contracts of employment – 10% carbon tax to those that do ….
loads of things can be done ..
A flow tax for the gas passing through the pipe – 50% there straight away – we own the infrastructure and the good will and the ultimate decision – all of us !
I’m always amused by the right wing fear of the left wing threat.
What are they going to do, nationalise the banks?
Brilliant Paul !
I understand Oil & Gas exploration is a very risky and expensive business, but I just can’t fathom why all Governments in Ireland to date have failed to cut a good deal, for its citizens, from major Oil Companies on the few successful discoveries achieved thus far.
Norway succeeded initially by negotiating with the majors a slice of the action at licensing stage. It later established its own State owned Oil company, and through all these slick moves – at Executive Government level – succeeded in building a Sovereign Wealth Fund now valued at €500 bn +.
Now there’s prudent management of a State’s assets!
If Norway can do it, why not Ireland!
Little point in wasting too much time evaluating prospects here now, with oil prices depressed at $60 per barrel.
However, as prices won’t be depressed for ever, Ireland’s official long-term economic planners (if we have any) might look into this.
Norway has oil & gas.
Ireland has very little of the latter & none of the former.
Norway incentivises exploration by refunding up to 80% of the cost of failed explorations.
If you want our government to copy that, please tell us where you will find the billions of euro needed to refund failed after failed exploration attempt?
Here’s why Norway could do it but we can’t:
In Norway one in three wells is commercial.
Despite “giving away” our oil, we in Ireland have yet to locate even one such oil well.
Get real, people.
I think the problem with the government making bad decisions when it comes to exploration, is they draught in consultants/ expert advice from the industry. I would presume a lot of these consultants would have ties / investments in certain exploration companies so it would be for their benefit to convince the state into thinking it’s getting a fair deal when it’s not. I’m no expert just my opinion.
Maybe if a company obtains a licence and fails to find oil / gas they should be able to write off some expense, but on hitting a viable well the state should claim at least 40 to 50% of all revenue gained with some but not all write off of expense incurred by the exploration company.
Mossy – 78% – Norway’s rate and the legal compunction on the government to follow best international practice ….
Tony O’Reilly Jnr is the man at the helm with PVR , not Snr, not Gavin either. It’s impossible to debate with people who are unable to get the basic facts right. Agree with Mr Fleming’s comment, besides have no fear if we do establish an oil and gas industry in Ireland the tax situation will be revisited by the State, I have no doubt.
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