Corrib Truth - Overdue

mayo | environment | press release

Sunday August 28, 2005 16:52

by JM

Rossport South, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland

A response to the powerful lies behind Corrib’s Unnatural Gas

The proposed gas pipeline in Erris, County Mayo, has at various times been referred to as either a transmission, distribution, domestic, offshore, sales or upstream pipeline, and even “offshore landline”. One thing is certain; no-one outside of the Shell/Statoil/Marathon partnership can take responsibility for the safety of the public. This is the number one concern for the people of Rossport.

Pipeline Design

The pipeline design was never evaluated by any competent authority, having been deemed, by Mayo County Council at the developers request, to be “exempt” from planning. The gas Refinery at Bellanaboy was turned down twice at the planning stages, but An Bord Pleanála eventually gave it the green light, overruling its own Senior Inspector who thoroughly condemned the project on a number of grounds.

The pipeline has from the very start been designed to withstand an operating pressure of 345 bar. Neither the design nor gas field have changed, but the stated operating pressure has dropped through 272 bar, 150 bar and 120 bar, to a recent figure of 100-110 bar, without any scientific basis.

The critical figure used to calculate various aspects of the pipeline, known as the
Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP), has never been openly stated.

The design code used by the engineers to achieve the pipe wall thickness of 27.1mm (1.07”) is the British BS8010, which is now out of date. This also happens to be the thinnest pipe allowable under that code, and ignores the need for 62mm (2.44”) at road crossings because of “difficulty in welding”.

Safety Distances

Design codes use the pipeline MAOP to determine the minimum safety distance to houses. The closest figure to this has been the often-repeated Maximum Operating Pressure (MOP) of 150 bar, which would result in a minimum clearance using BS8010 of 84m (273 ft).

The actual pressure that will be reached, and MUST be taken for safety reasons, is 345 bar, resulting in a clearance of 170m (553 ft). The safer Canadian/American model says this distance should be 295m (959 ft).

The houses in Rossport will barely be 70m (227 ft) away, and in several cases people will have to cross over the pipeline just 1.2m (4 ft) underground to get in and out of their homes every day.

This could never truthfully be described as “the highest possible safety standards”.

Waste Water

The outfall pipe takes waste products not recoverable from the gas treatment process and transports them 12.7km for discharge into Broadhaven Bay, home to nine confirmed species of whale and dolphin right up to Orcas; top of the food chain.

This discharge will contain varying amounts of the following; Chlorides, Sulphates, Bicarbonates of Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron Hydroxide, Calcium Sulphate, Radon, hydrocarbon condensate, Methanol, corrosion inhibitor, well completion muds, scale inhibitor, anti-foam, heating medium, lube oils, descaling fluids, and up to 3 tons of Lead, Nickel and Mercury every year.

Other elements to be found include Barium, Boron, Phosphorous, Chromium, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, Arsenic, Selenium and Silver … this will not be “drinking water “.

Air Pollution

On top of all the waste water pollutants, the air in the vicinity of the refinery will be poisoned by Oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of Carbon, particulate matter, Volatile Organic Compounds, Methane, Sulphur Dioxide, and POCP emissions including Ethane, Propane, i-Butane, n-Butane, i-Pentane, n-Pentane, n-Hexane, n-Octane, n-Heptane and Methanol.

Safety Reviews

Two so–called “independent” safety reviews of the pipeline design have been carried out so far … both by companies with close ties to Shell.

Neither review covered the whole concept for this unique and experimental project, the “subsea tie-back” solution, alternatives to which have never been satisfactorily explored.

Incredibly a third review has been ordered by Minister Noel Dempsey, but this underlying problem is yet again not to be addressed.

Quotes

“The design of this pipeline is a totally different design”
MD Shell E&P Ireland Limited, Andy Pyle, denying the “upstream” section is comparable to gas transmission pipelines (RTE Radio1 06/08/05)

“.. this is a transmission pipeline.”
Corrib Operations Manager, Mark Carrigy (“Countryfile” BBC TV 07/08/05)