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Shell EP Ireland has confirmed that work on several key aspects
of the Corrib gas project will not now take place this year.
The company told The Irish Times that the
decision was taken for “operational and community reasons”.
It will undertake further work on the offshore pipeline this
year, but intends to take an “integrated approach” to the
offshore/onshore dimension next year, when it hopes that “permitting
processes” will be “further advanced”.
In a letter to stakeholders issued by Shell managing director
Terry Nolan, he says that the laying of the 84m umbilical,
which provides the link between the Ballinaboy terminal and
the Corrib field for remote control of subsea gas production
facilities, will be postponed until next year.
The company explained that the umbilical laying would have
involved re-establishing a works site at the Glengad landfall.
“In the past, this has been a site where tensions have arisen
during works. Having no works site there in 2010 will, it
is hoped, minimise the exposure of the local community to
such potential tensions,” its communications adviser Colin
Joyce said.
The Corrib gas partners are awaiting a final decision from
An Bord Pleanála on the onshore pipeline and have sought an
extension to May 31st to provide further information on their
application under the Strategic Infrastructure Act. Last November,
An Bord Pleanála found that up to half of the proposed new
onshore pipeline route was “unacceptable”
on safety grounds, due to proximity to housing.
It suggested that the developers explore another route, up
the Sruwaddacon estuary, but the company has said it is satisfied
that the current proposed route meets all international safety
standards.
In recent correspondence with An Bord Pleanála, Shell consultants
RPS have queried aspects of the Bord Pleanála finding.
The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
chief technical officer, Bob Hanna, also criticised the decision,
arguing that it was based “solely on consequence” with no
attention given to mitigating measures. Mr Hanna has intimated
that the planning board’s approach may establish a “precedent”
which could have “the effect of prohibiting all significant
infrastructure developments”.
Mr Hanna’s intervention has been criticised by Shell to Sea
in Mayo, which also held a protest outside Castlerea prison
yesterday in support of fisherman Pat O’Donnell. Mr O’Donnell
was given a seven-month sentence recently for his part in
surrounding a Garda car during a cavalcade in September 2008
and a separate public order offence at Glengad.
Mr O’Donnell’s boat was sunk in Broadhaven Bay last year
in controversial circumstances, ahead of offshore pipeline
laying. “Pat O’Donnell and his family have become only the
latest victims of abuse as a result of the Corrib gas project,”community
group Pobal Chill Chomáin has said.
Source - The Irish Times
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