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Concern over Dublin Bay gas proposal

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Millions of tonnes of natural gas and carbon dioxide should not be stored off Dublin Bay, it was warned this week.
A joint venture between energy company Providence Resources and Malaysian owned Star Energy has confirmed that it is to investigate the feasibility of storing carbon dioxide and/or natural emissions in caverns off Dublin Bay.
Last week, the joint venture announced what it calls the ‘Ulysses Project’ to evaluate the carbon sequestration and natural gas storage potential of the Kish Bank Basin.
The study is being carried out on a 50/50 joint venture basis with Star Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian National Oil Company.
Star Energy is a leading UK gas storage company, with gas storage developments both onshore and offshore of the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Providence and Star Energy were recently awarded a three year licensing option over eight blocks in the Kish Bank Basin by the Department of Energy.
The agreed work programme will focus on the oil and gas exploration potential of the basin while the Ulysses Project will specifically assess the potential for underground saline reservoirs in the Kish Bank Basin to be used as sites for CO2 sequestration as well as natural gas storage.
The chief executive of Providence, Tony O’Reilly, said: “Providence has been evaluating various gas storage opportunities together with Star Energy since both companies entered into the Irish Gas Storage Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as part of the Singleton transaction which was completed in 2007.
“The Ulysses Project is the first of these opportunities that Providence and Star Energy have agreed to proceed with and is particularly exciting for Providence given its proximity to the city of Dublin, with its large carbon footprint.”
Footprint
Mr O’Reilly said that if the project was successful, he hoped that it could contribute to reducing Ireland’s carbon footprint as well as increasing its natural gas storage capacity.
However, Damien Cassidy of the Ringsend, Sandymount, Irishtown Environmental Group, believed that the project should be located away from one of the most densely populated areas in the country.
“There was a threat to store combustible gas in Dublin Bay before,” he said. “We all know that we need natural gas and in the case of the Corrib gas field, that gas has to be brought ashore.
“But here is a situation where they have chosen a built up area from Arklow to Malahide for combustible material, which, given what could happen, is too dangerous to contemplate.”
He added: “The country does need a reservoir of gas but not in the most built up and populous urban areas in the country. People might say it is highly unlikely that anything would happen but we do not know what the rocks are made of. We will be assured no doubt that everything will be safe but to have something of that nature on our doorstep doesn’t sound right.”
In response to Mr Cassidy’s concerns, a spokeswoman for Providence Resources said: “Agreement has been reached between Providence and Star Energy, a leading UK gas storage company (with gas storage developments both onshore and offshore United Kingdom and Western Europe) to conduct a study. The project is at a very early stage.”

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