Massive oil find in time for general election?
national |
environment |
other press 
Thursday January 25, 2007 22:03
by Miiram Cotton
mcotton at mediabite dot org
What have FF been holding back?
In discussion with a member of the Rossport Five last autumn mention was made of the fact that he believed the government were planning to make a big, election-winning announcement about the discovery of oil off our shores in time to secure a resounding victory at the next election. A tiny item in today's Irish Daily Mirror might point to something in that direction too:
"The government is locked in talks this week which could result in the biggest oil rush the country has ever seen. Officials are holding meetings at the UN headquarters in New York to secure more offshore territory to drill in".
Ireland can currently explore for natural resources on the sea bed up to 320 kilometeres outside the coastline. But now the state has requested access to an extra 39,000 square km off the southwest coast - about half the size of the country. The UN will make a decision on this submission during its next session in March or April. Ireland was only the fourth country ever to make a submission to the UN following similar moves by Rissia, Brazil and Australia. Last May, Ireland also requested access to 80,000 square km on the Celtic Sea off the south coast."
The piece is on page 2, barely noticeable in the least viewed part of the layout. For such an extraordinarily signficant item of news, this seems a bit strange. Why so coy? Do Manchester United's training secrets seriously warrant front page coverage ahead of this?
Comments (10 of 10)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/3072...y.htm
Are the government desperate to recover from the great gas and oil give-away? And if so, what of the Shell to Sea campaign? Might it be drowned in a tidal wave of avaricious excitement and hubris?
Fascinating quote from the article linked to above:
"Given the current oil price ... companies are looking wider than they may have done in the past," said Andy Pyle, managing director of Shell Exploration and Production Ireland.
The Irish government hopes to capitalise on this interest. In the past year, it has launched two licensing rounds for blocks off the west coast and adopted a more vigorous approach to marketing the nation's potential internationally.
"There's huge competition between countries ... it's for that reason we made the decision a few years back to review the various incentives to try and attract more exploration," said natural resources minister Noel Dempsey.
Taxes have been lowered and at 25 percent, Ireland's rate on oil and gas profits is now among the lowest in the world. By comparison, Norway has an effective 78 percent tax rate.
Dempsey said the initial response from oil firms to the rounds was positive. If demand for licences in the Celtic Sea, off the southwest coast, is anything to go by, he can be optimistic these will translate into firm bids. "
The people of Munster might at long last achieve independence just like the Scottish & have decent education, short waiting lists at hospitals, & saturated food.
note the difference between Ireland's 25% tax rate & that of Norway's 78%! thank you Mim.
A search on the words 'oil finds off the coast of Ireland' brings a list of results headed by a Shell sponsored link reading
"Shell Oil - Corrib Gas - the most exciting energy project in Ireland"
'Exciting?' That's one way of putting it!
http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=oil+find+off+south+...meta=
...that in this instance, it appears the government have not yet given away the finds - but they are preparing to sell it at bargain basement-prices. Will they never learn?
Why isnt this is huge, fat news all over every paper? Or did I miss something? Does everyone know this already?
"Why isnt this is huge, fat news all over every paper? Or did I miss something?"
Yes, you missed everything, and not for the first time.
All that this is about is a small extension of the territorial waters that Ireland has the right to give licenses to explore in over
coming decades. To deduce from this that a huge oil discovery will be made in these waters in time for the May/June
election is fantasy. It could be years before oil companies even begin exploring in these waters. Oil companies have been
exploring in Ireland's existing and far larger territorial waters since 1970 and all that's been discovered is two small gas
fields and no commercial oil fields.
The Irish people have been led to think that all gas and exploration licences have been given away and that there will be no dividend for the country from the extraction of any oil/gas that is found. If you weren't so concerned with being snide you might have been able to get your head around the significance to our suffering and decaying infrastructure of a even 25% tax levy from even a modest find . It could transform the country if used well. What we don't want to see is yet another carve-up of those dividends among the wealthy elite who have shafted us all on this issue so far. We do not have a government we can trust where oil and gas are concerned. Given his track record, Dempsey is not the man any sane or fair-minded person would want to be in charge of this. He is perhaps the biggest big business poodle of them all and he still has tight hold of the reins on the oil/gas horse.
The opposition parties should be making loud and concerned demands about where the government are going on this. The public interest has to be the first priority if there are further finds.
Your right about being careful trusting the government with regards to the oil and gas industry. I worked for the government for over a year in the department that dealt with the oil and gas industry and during my time there I noticed some strange and worrying transactions were data relating to oil exploration was bouight and sold through banks in Jersey. The question is why and who exactly owned these accounts?
Never did come to any conclusions but interesting none the less.
A "person" who worked for an American company during the mid 90's. said that there were test holes drilled all around Ireland for oil. He said that he might loose his job or be prosecuted at the time if he was to let this news out. He has now passed away and i was browsing the net and came across this.
He said that nearly every test hole that was drilled had hit oil but were capped. the rights to these sites were sold to this company.
he couldn't understand why at the time, these sites were never used but it was corporate America controlling the dollar etc
I've no way of verifying this but some one might, who reads this. it might mean that this recession hit time could be fixed sooner than later and we start producing oil and in effect make our island a bit more secure.
Mark to add any credibility to your claim.......
Tell us the name of the company your friend worked for ......easy.......
I was Talking to this mans sister and she said not to mention his or her name. He worked for a lot of company's not just one over the years. From 1961 up to 1998 when he retired.
She mentioned Shell, Statoil, Marathon, Exxon and Mobil there are a few others, but if i have time she can get the names of these other company's for me. she is not sure who was involved in the drilling around Ireland but she said it was way back as she can recall as the late 60's to the early 70's when they started drilling. But her brother was involved in over 150 test site's.
sorry for the late reply....
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.