Vol. 551 No. 2
130 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the degree to which oil and gas explorations to date have shown a capability to meet national requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10300/02]
131 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the extent to which current or anticipated oil or gas discoveries are likely to enhance the potential of the national grid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10301/02]
134 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the recent discoveries arising from mining gas or other explorations offshore; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10304/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 130, 131 and 134 together.
I refer the Deputy to my replies to Questions Nos. 93 to 97, inclusive, on this subject on Wednesday, 6 February 2002. Enterprise Energy Ireland Limited declared the Corrib gas field commercial in January 2001 on behalf of its co-venturers, Statoil and Marathon. A petroleum lease demising the petroleum in the Corrib leasehold area issued to the Corrib group on 15 November 2001 and gave the conditions under which the lessees may work the petroleum, that is produce and market the gas. The granting of the lease does not in itself allow the company to commence development of the field, as under the terms of the lease, a plan of development accompanied by an environmental impact statement has to be submitted by the group for my approval before development can take place.
A development plan accompanied by an environmental impact statement submitted by the group is being processed in my Department and I expect to make a decision on the matter soon. Enterprise Energy Ireland has plans to bring the gas ashore by October 2003 and expects the field to be in production for about 15 years. This is the first gas discovery to be developed off the west coast and the second large independent development in Ireland since the development plan for the Kinsale field was approved about 25 years ago. Its reserves are estimated at more than half those of the Kinsale and Ballycottton fields.
Ireland's future energy requirements are a matter for Deputy O'Rourke, the Minister for Public Enterprise. However, Ireland has no reserves of oil and all its oil requirements are imported. About 18% of the national gas requirement is met by production from the Kinsale Head gas field and the remaining 82% is imported through the interconnector. These figures reflect the decline in production from Kinsale since 1995-96 when it met 83% of the national requirement. It is expected that the share of the national requirement supplied by indigenous gas will increase when the Corrib field comes into production.
