IOSEA 1 - Slyne, Erris and Donegal Basins

Exploration Background

Over the past decade, exploration activity levels offshore Ireland have been relatively low. Some drilling seasons have witnessed no wildcat wells being drilled at all. The PAD has begun to conduct a fresh review of the hydrocarbon potential of the Atlantic Ireland sedimentary basins, starting with the acreage covering the Slyne, Erris and Donegal Basins.

This acreage is included in a Licensing Round that closed for bids on 15 March 2006. It is likely that further licensing rounds for acreage in Atlantic waters will be announced over the coming years.

Environmental Background

Despite the low historic exploration activity, the PAD has continued to conduct and to sponsor environmental data gathering and analysis in the area. This work has been administered under the auspices of the Petroleum Infrastructure Programme (PIP).

In addition, the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), in cooperation with the Irish Marine Institute and others has conducted a state-of-the-art survey of Ireland's seabed known as the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS) over seven years at a cost of €32 million. The last data-gathering voyage was made in autumn, 2005. Many data displays are available and there is ongoing interpretation of seabed characteristics and their marine sub-environments.  Other research projects such as the EU-funded MESH (Mapping European Seabed Habitats) project are also relevant. In addition, a series of industry-funded Environmental Appraisals (The West Coast of Ireland, The South West Coast Of Ireland, The South East Coast of Ireland) were carried out during the period 1995-1997.

Hence, there is a large catalogue of environmental base data and some analysis that has already been conducted. However, the PAD recognises that the work is not exhaustive and some areas have been only lightly examined to date.

Decision to Conduct an SEA

In accordance with the EU’s SEA Directive, and with the DCMNR’s concurrence, the PAD has now embarked on a programme of Strategic Environmental Assessment of the entire offshore area, starting with the Slyne, Erris and Donegal region, as outlined in the Location Map. This programme will firstly inform the Irish government of specific environmental considerations in its forthcoming licensing process. Secondly, it will be a more efficient means to provide oil companies working offshore with an operational baseline against which they can conduct their work and ensure responsibility to environmental protection.

The PAD recognises that this study will be a pre-cursor to a consultation process and plans to utilise the outputs as communication instruments to fulfil the requirements of the SEA process.

The IOSEA 1 Programme

An expert contractor, ERT (Scotland) Ltd was engaged by the PAD at the end of November 2005 to conduct the data gathering, analysis and preparation of the Environmental Report for IOSEA1. The project kick-off meeting was held on 12 December 2005 and a Steering Group was formed with a cross-section of representation and interests, under the chairmanship of Micheal O’Cinneide of the Marine Institute. The first scoping workshop with the IOSEA Steering Group was held on 2 February 2006. Following the publication of the draft Environmental report on 13 April 2006 a 4 week public consultation process commenced.. The timetable was quite aggressive, but the PAD believes that this was an effective means to initiate and ‘baseline’ a process that is tailored to the needs of Irish offshore petroleum exploration. Clearly, the process itself will mature and improve under the direction of the Steering Group. Moreover, the PAD expects to harmonize subsequent IOSEA projects to future licensing rounds, in consultation with the Steering Group.

The IOSEA 1 Timeline