cap">How long have we been talking about Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Corrib natural gas field development off the northwest coast of Ireland? Too long, but it looks like we’ll be talking about it even more in the future.
“It will be at least 2 years, even if we started building now without any difficulties,” said Irish Energy Minister Eamon Ryan. “It is a very difficult project,” he said, adding, “We are talking years rather than months.”
Corrib field, estimated to contain 1 tcf of gas and due to come on stream in 2009, has been beset by protests and delays ever since its discovery in 1996.
Local people want Shell to process the gas at a shallow-water platform as they fear that onshore processing at Bellanaboy would bring a pipeline too close to their homes.
Painful process
“The Corrib gas project has been a protracted and sometimes painful process for many of the people involved,” said Ryan, who announced the establishment of a new forum aimed at bringing together the contending parties.
“This forum will be the first time all of the parties sit down together,” said Ryan, who wants to unite local opinion about the project, which he hopes will reduce Ireland’s dependence on imported gas and boost state coffers.
The minister ruled out, however, any renegotiation of the original deal on the gas license or the relocation of the gas terminal, although his own Green Party passed a motion in June stating that relocation of the Bellanaboy facility was the “only way” to resolve the issue.
“That cannot be on the agenda,” said Ryan.
“There is a legal process that has been gone through. There has been a planning process and we cannot supplant and replace An Bord Pleanala,” said Ryan, referring to the country’s national planning board.
“What we can change is the dynamic that has happened in the absence of government involvement,” said Ryan, adding, “We are now putting government center stage.”
Opposition persists
Ryan rejected criticism that the forum was a case of too little, too late.
“It is never too late in terms of dialogue and common engagement,” he said. “It’s better to do this than not to do it. Things could have taken a very different course if there had been engagement at the outset.”
Ryan certainly got a positive response from Shell, which naturally wants to advance the Corrib development as quickly as possible.
“As developers of the most significant infrastructural project ever undertaken in the region, we look forward to participating wholeheartedly in the forum’s work,” said a Shell spokesman.
But opponents do not agree.
Pobaill Chill Chomain, a community group opposed to the citing of the Bellanaboy refinery, insisted no subject must be off limits. “The Bellanaboy location is the fundamental problem and has to be up for discussion,” a spokesman said.
Stay tuned.
