Vol. 516 No. 4
33 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the proposals, if any, he has for the piping ashore of natural gas from the Corrib Field; when the gas will be made available for the national gas network; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8182/00]
The gas field off County Mayo, the Corrib Field, has not yet been declared commercial; further appraisal drilling will be undertaken this year and Enterprise Oil hope to be in a position to decide on commerciality in December this year.
The final decision as to whether the field is commercial will depend on factors such as the volumes of gas in place, the quality of the reservoir, the quality of the gas, the flow rate of wells, market availability and price and the cost of development. Calculation of the size of the gas accumulation is too imprecise at this stage based on data currently available but this will be known with more precision once the accumulation has been fully appraised.
Should the results of this appraisal drilling enable the company to establish that the field is commercial then it will be the duty of Enterprise Oil to apply forthwith for a petroleum lease with a view to its development. Within two years of the issue of a petroleum lease the lessee is obliged to submit a plan of development for the field for my approval. Should the field be declared commercial my understanding from the company is that it would be their intention to have the gas in production by mid 2003
It is required in such plan of development that details be provided on the design, siting construction, establishment, operation, abandonment and removal of facilities, including the export pipeline from the field to the onshore terminal, for the production, processing, storage or shipment of gas produced. Any transmission pipeline downstream of the onshore terminal does not form part of the development and is therefore not subject to my approval, being a matter for the Minister for Public Enterprise.
Pending completion of the appraisal programme no decision has been taken on an upstream pipeline location but in the expectation that the further appraisal will be successful, Enterprise Oil has in the meantime a conceptual development plan under consideration which includes analysis of a number of different possible pipeline routes and landfall locations. Initial route surveys have been conducted over several possible routes and more are planned for this year.
