Dublin, Monday, 16th September, 2002
Mr. Dermot Ahern, T.D., and Mr. John Browne T.D., Minister and Minister of State for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, today announced a new initiative aimed at increasing exploration for oil and gas off the Irish coast.
The initiative entails the opening of the entire Porcupine Basin off the West and South West coast for licensing (Frontier Exploration Licences). Licensing will be by means of four tranches, which will be successively opened for licence bids at near six-monthly intervals between March, 2003 and October, 2004. All other basins off the west coast currently closed (Slyne, Erris, Donegal and Rockall) will remain so for the present.
The Ministers intend to provide details of the licensing process and the conditions applicable to successful applicants next month.
Minister Browne stated: “The primary task of both myself and my colleague, Dermot Ahern, is to deliver on the State’s energy policy. That is to ensure we have enough supplies to support economic growth and competitiveness and ensure that energy supply and use are environmentally sustainable.”
The Minister went on: “In recent years we have witnessed the decline in output from the Kinsale Head gas field which has meant that the State has become over-dependent on imports to meet our growing energy requirements. It is vital that the State does everything in its power to encourage and increase the supply of energy from within our own frontiers.”
“In relation to gas, both the Corrib Field off the Mayo coast and the Seven Heads field off the southern coast have the potential to make up for the near exhaustion of the Kinsale Head gas field. Nonetheless, of great concern is the dramatic decline in exploration activity offshore in the last few years,” Minister Browne stated.
“This is due to a variety of reasons, including the very high level of restructuring within the industry in recent years, uncertainty with regard to oil price and virtual absence of a development infrastructure. In addition, there is a difficult offshore frontier environment, plus the industry’s perception of prospecting in Ireland and the opportunities offered by exploration ‘hot spots’ around the world,” the Minister stated.
“Both myself and Dermot Ahern are of the view there is a need to kick-start prospecting once again off our coast. There are large areas off the coast closed for licensing and which are untested,” Minister Browne said.
In support of the opening of the Porcupine, the successful joint-industry/Government Petroleum Infrastructure Programme (PIP) will be remodelled to encourage and support further regional data gathering and applied research and indigenous infrastructure capabilities, in support of the Department’s work to promote offshore exploration and production. Exploration data release mechanisms will be strengthened, and will include the launch of a new on-line meta-database for all released offshore data.
Minister Dermot Ahern stated: “The initiative announced today is framed so that while offering opportunities to the industry for renewed licensing in the Porcupine Basin, other basins offshore are conserved for the future by remaining closed off for licensing for the moment.”
In launching this licensing initiative, the Ministers reiterated that they are strongly committed to and fully supportive of a strong, indigenous gas industry. They recognise the obligations which arise under the E&P Licensing Terms, 1992, specifically the rights of an exploration company to obtain a Petroleum Lease for development of any discovery, subject to the Minister being satisfied that any discovery can be developed commercially under the Terms; that the lessees have sufficient technical and financial resources to undertake and operate the development, and that all operations will be conducted safely and with due regard to their impact on the environment and other land/sea users.
ENDS
The licensing terms for offshore oil and gas exploration are available at www.pad.ie.
For further information, please contact:
Richard Moore
Press Advisor
Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources
Leeson Lane
Dublin 2
Tel: +353-(0) 1-619-9471
Fax: +353-(0) 1-676-6161
Or
Tom Mc Loughlin
Press Officer
Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources
Leeson Lane
Dublin 2
Tel: +353-(0) 1-619-9662
Fax: +353-(0) 1-676-6161