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Oil found off west coast of Ireland
 national |
environment |
news report
 Saturday July 18, 2009 14:35 by AM
CEO says: They are attractive partly due to the tax rate in Ireland
Serica, the British energy company, has found oil in the Slyne basin, off the west coast of Ireland.
Under current licencing agreements, all oil found in Irish waters will belong exclusively to the finder, with no royalty payable to the people of Ireland. All exploration and development costs will be claimed back before tax is paid. Minor changes to the licencing terms, brought in by Eamon Ryan in 2007, won't apply to this find.
In a Reuter's interview last year, Paul Ellis, the company's chief executive, said of the Irish exploration: "They are look-a-like prospects to Shell's Corrib prospects, and are attractive partly due to the tax rate in Ireland."
 This Serica map shows their licenced blocks, and (oddly) shows the Corrib pipeline in place. Serica Energy has found oil with its first exploration wellin the same Sherwood sandstones which are the source of Shell’s Corrib gas field to the north.
According to Serica, it was also the first oil find anywhere off western Ireland for nearly 30 years. The company's chief executive Paul Ellis said: “This is the first oil discovery west of Ireland for nearly 30 years," (That really depends on how far west you go, Paul.)
The licence, with a 15-year exploration term covering three blocks, 27/4, part of 27/5, and 27/9, was granted in December 2006. Serica is the licence operator with 50%, and the remaining 50% interest is held by German company RWE Dea.
The licence terms for oil and gas exploration were changed by the government in 2007 to make them very slightly less attractive to energy companies from a taxation point of view, but this find will be on the same terms (now widely known as the "Burke/Ahern Deal") as Shell got for Corrib. So don't get too fired up, none of the money from this oil find will be spent in your hospital or school.
Mr Ellis though, is very excited about the potential for his company. He said: “Serica's 600 square kilometre licence area contains several prospects and we shall now be evaluating them as potential drilling targets. Although much more work needs to be done before the commercial potential of the discovery and the rest of the licence can be established, the Bandon oil discovery could mark the beginning of an exciting phase of Irish exploration.”
Exciting for the investors in Serica, and also for the farmers and fishermen of the west coast, who might find being thrown in ditches, arrested, and being sent to prison exciting, since Serica may well try to use existing onshore infrastructure for processing the find. They certainly shouldn't get excited about any of the profits from Irish natural resources being used to invest in renewable energy for the future, of even to pay off the country's debts. For that you'd need the Green Party in government...
In a strange twist to this story, Fergus Cahill, who speaks for the Irish offshore operators association (and, many say, writes Eamon Ryan's press releases for him) has been issuing statements on how difficult it is to get energy companies to explore off the west coast.
He even wrote a column in the Irish Times on June 26th saying the prospects for oil finds were poor and we should be grateful anyone at all was willing to come along and help us find our resources (and keep them of course). This is at the very time that Paul Ellis was saying how exciting it all was.
Strange that the Irish Times didn't quote Paul Ellis, or even make much of the announcement of the first discovery of oil in Irish waters for thirty years. Maybe Paul should ring Fergus and tell him that things aren't so bad, and then Fergus could write another article explaining how in this exciting time for oil exploration in Irish waters, the government needs to keep giving away Irish resources to the energy companies. Maybe.
http://offshore-mag.com/index/article-display/610947079....html
http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/June2009/25/c9904....html
http://www.offshore247.com/news/art.aspx?id=13944
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0626/1....html
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/supremo-to-ove....html
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Comments (15 of 15)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15A recent piece on the Serica find.
That's great - I have to read indymedia to learn of oil-finds in Ireland. And this is the silly season - wonder why it wasn't widely reported, a handy story.
Well written AM, well researched, thanks for focusing on facts. For instance, you make good points re the Irish Times coverage/omission. Your restrained style of commentary and analysis - in the face of the outrageous carry-on in Mayo/Ireland - says more than if you had railed and ranted against the system (which we are all entitled to do). I'm outraged that the clever clogs in Government can't plug the hole in the national finances with the obvious earning opportunities from oil/gas resources.
And I don't support anyone connected to the sinking of boats owned by dissenters.
The Green Party has turned yellow. We need a new Red Green party here - I think there's one in Iceland.
This was quite widely reported at the time.
eg
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0610/1....html
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/west-coast-oil-....html
For information
In case people are not aware there is already a developed and abandoned oil field off Galway called Connemara. This was developed by Statoil and partners around the time when oil was $10 a barrel. The installed equipment was refurbished and moved to a North Sea field.
Maybe this is now a viable field - any comments?
The Connemara oil discovery was not developed.
Several exploration/appraisal wells were drilled and there was a production test, but it proved not to be commercial and the license was dropped. Although a new license was taken out over the discovery 2 or 3 years ago there has been no further drilling so far.
Although it was covered in the business sections of the Irish Times and Independent, have to say I knew nothing about this until I read about it here. Why wasn't it on the news? Exciting discovery of oil in irish waters - worth a mention?
Details: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/serica-awarded-...shtml
Paul Ellis: "The award of this new Licence in the Rockall Basin represents a significant addition to Serica's exploration position in Ireland, following our recent Bandon oil discovery in the Slyne Basin. Several of Serica's present staff were involved in the Corrib and Dooish discoveries west of Ireland whilst at Enterprise Oil and have a detailed knowledge of exploration and operations in the Atlantic Margin of Ireland. The award is a further example of Serica's strategy to access acreage where 3D seismic data is already available, which enables exploration drilling to take place at an early stage."
Pity the Irish government couldn't use this 3D seismic data, or at least keep a 50 per cent stake in the finds...
“I hate to criticise a multinational, because generally speaking I am a great fan of multinationals (they being the basis of our present prosperity) but I have to say that Shell has been scandalously remiss in not employing someone to bump off a few of these fellows.” [Kevin Myers, Irish Independent, Friday 3rd August 2007]
Kevin Myarse gets a forum and paycheck to aspouse the murder of Irish Citizens!!
(Irische 'journalist' kevin myers(?) von der zeitung irishtimes ruft mörder auf sein Gegnern. Und was macht den irischen Behörden?.. gar nichts!)
"Pity the Irish government couldn't use this 3D seismic data"
The irish taxpayer did however have to pay for the data to be obtained!
If an ordinary citizen made a statement like this = “I hate to criticise a multinational, because generally speaking I am a great fan of multinationals (they being the basis of our present prosperity) but I have to say that Shell has been scandalously remiss in not employing someone to bump off a few of these fellows.” [Kevin Myers, Irish Independent, Friday 3rd August 2007]
He would be made to answer in court for it.
Why is he not charged with incitement to murder?
It wouldn't be that he works for O Rielly, a long term supporter of FIanna Fail would it?
Where are the Gardai and the minister for justice on this issue? Do they agree with his statement?
The support of the the Gardai for IRMS mercenaries makes me think that they do.
Or maybe he wasn't prosecuted because the comments were clearly tongue in cheek and meant to amuse rather than incite violence, you fool.
From the poison pen of a nasty little third rate O'Reilly ragsheet hack like Myarse - I don't think so!! plus he has plenty of form in this area.
Tongue in cheek or not (which I doubt very much), when Myers wrote a piece inciting Supt. Joe Gannon to use the baton on the
protesters a photocopy of his column was pinned to the notice board in the Garda station in belmullet for months
afterwards. Obyiously the Belmullet Gardai didn't see that it was meant as an ironic piece written to amuse the D4 chattering classes.
BRITISH exploration group Serica estimates that one of its licences in the Irish Sea could hold commercial quantities of natural gas. Chief executive Paul Ellis said yesterday that the Conan field in Irish waters could hold up to one billion cubic feet of natural gas.
In today's Times-
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1208/1....html
History ought to tell us that we must pay heed to our 'wealth' and that is the wealth contained in our land and seas.
This is about the 'dream' that same dream that swept the Irish people in the 1980's to hunt for Gold and Oil on our shores.
Atlantic resources was in the news back then, in fact people who scarely knew anything about dealing on the Stock Exchange bought into the dream and bought shares.
Tony O'Reilly, as he was known then, was the driver of market forces. The outcome for Atlantic was: .... well we are still waiting!
Did we learn anything? Well, we have learned that in Norway the Government secured a deal with the oil companies that would reflect fair payment for the people of Norway as a priority.
This is not the case in Ireland. We need to review the deal made in the days of Ray Burke. The law evolves and often retreats. Try looking at Comyn v. the AG 1950 (Sean McBride lead counsel) in the hope of a fairer package especially with the latest find by a company from the UK.
Lisbon. We need not hang our heads too low. Ireland did foresake her 'seas' to the beaches' for entry to the EU in 1973.
Ballyvaughan