January 2013

Shell Ireland has got a fresh cash injection of €125 million from its parent to deal with the spiralling costs of the Corrib gas project. News of the funding came as Shell Ireland confirmed yesterday that work on the 5km on-shore subterranean gas pipeline would take another 15 months to complete.

 Dear Sir/Madam,

Irish onshore and offshore oil and gas reserves could be worth more than €2tn, writes John Hearne

LAST year saw a renewed focus on the possibility of Irish economic salvation lying beneath the rocks in our territorial waters.

About 1.8bn barrels of oil were discovered at Barryroe off the coast of Cork in October. A month later, Petrel Resources said it found a further 1bn barrels in the South Porcupine Basin off the Kerry coast.

Tests show the possibility of a sizeable deposit at the Exxon Mobil-operated Dunquin field off the south-west coast, while Providence Resources, the company that is leading this new flurry of exploration, has been granted a license to drill an exploratory well 10km off Dalkey in south Co Dublin.

The fact that there’s oil in them there seas is nothing new. A 2006 study said in the Atlantic margin alone there were potential reserves of 10bn barrels of oil/gas equivalent. At today’s prices, 10bn barrels would sell for nearly a €1tn. A more recent study however has made even that life-changing sum look small.

In September, the pressure group Dublin Shell to Sea published a report which surveyed the total of Irish offshore and onshore resources. It estimated the total volume of gas and oil available in the 69 designated exploration areas at 21bn barrels of oil. That’s more than €2tn worth of black gold.