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Ireland's Natural Resources:

By: 
Democratic Reform

Many politicians would have you believe that we have no natural resources. But they do exist, on land and under the sea, we have vast natural resources of Oil, and Gas. We also have vast mineral resources including Lead, Zinc, and many other Minerals, as well as significant deposits of Uranium and Gold.

Under International Law, the Irish Nation owns a very large area, over 220 Million Acres (or 25%) of the European Continental Shelf, and under International Law, any Oil, Gas, or Minerals found within or beneath our Exclusive Economic Zone belongs to the Irish Nation.


Source; The Dept. Of Communication, the Marine and Natural Resources.
For further Information visit: www.marine.ie and look for the Real Map of Ireland.

Oil and Natural Gas:

According to a Government report released in 2006, entitled "Atlantic Ireland- An Exciting Petroleum Province", Ireland has discovered Oil and Gas reserves which could be worth up to $1 TRILLION dollars at current prices.

Reported by the Sunday Independent (20th May 2007) and by the Irish Times (19th June 2009)
The Irish Government has identified Oil and Gas resources, along the Porcupine Ridge, which would help to satisfy Europe's long term projected Energy Needs. An assessment of our Atlantic Oil and Gas Reserves show potential generated volumes of oil and gas to be, 130 Billion Barrels of Oil, and 50 Trillion Cubic Ft. of Natural Gas. Including a major Gas Field which is believed to exist beneath the Bog of Allen.. estimated at 9.5 Trillion Cubic Ft of Natural Gas.

This is an Extract from that Government Report titled,
Atlantic Ireland an exciting petroleum province....2006:

Source Rock Modelling Well data, combined with gross depositional environment models, indicate Upper and Lower Jurassic regional world class source rocks. Volumetric assessment and expulsion modelling from the Lower Jurassic alone, show generated volumes of over 130 billion barrels of oil and around 50Tcf of gas. (thats 50 TRILLION Cubic Feet of Gas)
The source rocks are generating today.

Source; The Dept. Of Communication, the Marine and Natural Resources.

For further Information visit the dept of the marine website and view:
SP-3/06 Brochure Under Special Publications
The Source Rock Modelling Well data is on the Right Hand side of page 2.


The fields identified in the Report include;

Dunquinn ;__ Providence Resources

The Dunquinn field off the coast of Kerry contains an astonishing 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 4,130 million barrels of oil. This field is being principally developed by Exxon Mobil: "With Dunquinn we are planning to drill wells next year and 2009. It is deep water, and as a rule of thumb, it takes about five years to get a field into production, so we are looking at 2013 to 2015. "The gas will be brought ashore in a pipeline and the oil tankered away," explained John O'Sullivan, Exploration Manager with Providence Resources, who have a stake in Dunquinn and fields off the coast of Clare.

Spanish Point; __Providence Resources

Further up the coast is the Spanish Point field, which is 200km off the coast of Clare. The field has known reserves of one and a quarter trillion cubic feet of gas and 206 million barrels of oil, and is valued at €19.6bn. "At Spanish Point we are looking at drilling wells next year and looking at production in that field in 2011,"explained John O'Sullivan.

Corrib;__ Shell, Statoil, and Marathon

Further North lies Corrib, County Mayo, which has an estimated value of anywhere between €8bn to €87bn. The field, which has been the scene of much controversy,

Statoil is owned by the Norwegian government.

Lough Allen;__ Finavera

Inland lies the Lough Allen basin - an area which was largely famous as a bog. But now the area has been notionally valued at €74.4bn and contains 9.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.5 billion barrels of oil. The vast field lies beneath Lough Allen and straddles Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo. The operator of this field is a company called Finavera.

Kinsale;__ EirGas

Although thought to be nearing exhaustion, Tony O'Reilly recently exercised an option to increase his control of oil and gas fields off kinsale. In disclosing to the Stock exchange his other interests, his legal advisor's listed ten other oil and gas interest's in the Celtic Sea. Tony O'Reilly is no ones fool.

Other Finds Include

The Irish Sea

Recent announcements from Exploration companies, concerning oil and gas discoveries in the Irish Sea adjacent to the Kish Bank and off the Wexford Coast, leave no doubt but that Ireland is indeed sitting on an oil and gas bonanza.

Kish Basin__VP Power

Perhaps Mary Harneys Husband (Brian Geoghegan) could tell us more about the Gas from Coal project currently underway off the Kish Basin, which according to reports could fuel several power stations, for many years. Relieving just some of the debt of this Nation.

See Sunday Tribune article; __

Sunday Tribune 2009

These Oil and Gas Resources come under European control in 2014,

See; Lisbon Treaty.

Mining in Ireland:

Base metals:

Ireland has a widely varied geological framework, ranging from Ancient to the Present, that includes a number of mineral provinces endowed with a diverse range of base and precious metals as well as industrial mineral deposits. Mining in Ireland dates back to copper mining during the Bronze Age (2000-400 B.C.). Over the last 40 years a string of significant base metal discoveries were made, (including the giant ore deposit at Tara Mines).

Ireland now ranks, in terms of tonnes of ore discovered per square kilometre, first in the world, for zinc ore, and second in the world for lead ore,

Source; The Dept. Of Communication, the Marine and Natural Resources.
(None of the above is processed in Ireland, It's all exported to refineries abroad.)

Gold Mining in Ireland

Recent finds in the The Clontibret area of Monaghan / Cavan, by Conroy Diamonds and Gold, of over 5 Million ounces of Gold, which at $1400 an ounce, are substantial. The potential value exceeds $7 Billion dollars. This would support the belief of possible further substantial finds, in Sligo, Wexford and Wicklow.

There is a long history of gold mining in Ireland. It is possible we are sitting on billions of dollars worth of gold. Using modern research and exploration tools it should be possible to reopen some mines and recover this vast wealth.

Irish Fishing Rights

Perhaps the most blatant example of arrogance and incompetence, was the decision to open our exclusive fishing rights to European Fishermen. Ireland owns 23% of the fishing waters in Europe but is only allowed 4% of the European fish trade quota, These rights which were guaranteed by International Law, were sold to Europe for 6 Billion pounds. Money which was supposed to go to Farming and Infrastructure projects. But do you believe that is where the money went.

Question,

  • Why we now have less than quarter of the farmers, than when we signed up to this deal.
  • Why have so many Irish fishermen left the Industry.
  • Why are we paying tolls on roads supposed to have been built with the 6 Billion pounds.

    What good is all this to Ireland

    The Irish people receive very little from these resources, due to the incompetence of the government. The then minister responsible for these resources, Ray Burke, signed away our rights to these resources.

    This is an Extract from a Government Report titled
    Land of Mineral Opportunities- published in May 2006.

    Tax incentives relevant to exploration and mining in Ireland include:

    • No State Shareholding in the Project and No Royalties are Payable to the State.
    • Immediate write-off of development and exploration expenditure
    • Corporation Tax of 25 percent (reducing to 12.5% for downstream manufacturing)
    • Capital Allowance of up to 120 percent
    • Expenditure on rehabilitation of mine sites after closure is tax-deductible
    • There are no restrictions on foreign investment in Ireland,
    • There are no restrictions with capital repatriation from the State.

    In 2007, a profit resource rent tax, was introduced which applies to any finds made under licences issued on or after January 2007. PRRT is in addition to the corporate tax rate currently employed.

    This tax operates on a graded basis of profitability as follows;

    • an additional 15% tax in respect of fields where the profit ratio* exceeds 4.5
    • an additional 10% where the profit ratio is between 3.0 and 4.5
    • an additional 5% where the profit ratio is between 1.5 and 3.0
    • no change where the profit ratio is less than 1.5

      * Profit ratio is defined as rate of profits less 25% corporate tax divided by the accumulated level of capital investment.

      Source; The Dept. Of Communication, the Marine and Natural Resources.

    How much more of the Irish Nation, will be lost before the Irish People say "Stop".